Gender-Neutrality and Gender-Fluidity in Old English Literature

我的博士论文旨在证明古英语文学的性别批评可以在二元对立之外发挥作用，并消除二元对立，将重点放在对无性别身体的展示上，作为对越来越多关于男女如何受到不同对待的工作的回应。第一章将探讨Ælfric的布道，圣徒的生活，和古英语殉道学。Christine Rauer对“mann”的研究（Rauer, 2017）和Rhonda McDaniel的作品《第三性别》（McDaniel, 2018）展示了在圣徒传记中解开性别和性的可能性，并有进一步的语义分析潜力，以揭示对中性人性和道德的强调，而不是教会地位和性别角色。本章还将探讨隐喻的力量，将身体转化为圣灵的中性容器，并将总体上努力确定道德和人性在多大程度上是这些体裁中的性别问题。第二章将着重于医学文献，包括Bald's Leechbook和Lacnunga。先前存在的性别批评，包括R.A.巴克在Leechbook上的论文，坚持坚定不移地关注专门针对女性的补救措施，尽管他观察到“大部分补救措施都是针对一般身体的”（巴克，2000，第45页）。因此，本章将分析一些补救措施中的语言，量化直接指示性别中立的名词，并检查明确的作者对性别的评论，以证明对强制性别二元的现代理解是一种不准确的方式来看待这些医学文本对性别的看法。第三章将考察盎格鲁-撒克逊法典，一些学者认为这构成了妇女权利的“黄金时代”（Clark, 1995）。其他人则指出，女性的价值是基于婚姻状况和生育能力（Hough, 2007）。然而，这种批评强化了性别二元对立，而中立可能更合适，本章将通过对国王Ælfred的性别与非性别法律的定量检查来证明这一点。此外，我将通过对身体伤害赔偿法律的语义分析，并确定一种强调个人意志作为性别中立修辞的明确评论模式，来证明身体是一种不分性别的商品的概念。最后一章将研究古英语诗歌中的性别中立和流动性，特别关注贝奥武夫，朱迪思，伍尔夫和爱德华，以及妻子的挽歌。作为大量性别批评的对象，对这些诗歌中的女性角色的分析通常集中在雌雄同体，或相反的二元性别的典型特征上（Litton 1993; Hatton 2012）。然而，通过在阅读古英语诗歌中模棱两可的特征时掩饰强制的二元性，本章将证明，而不是这些诗人进行激进的逆转，中立可能更好地捕捉诗人的意图。除了为这些文本提供另一种视角之外，这样的论文可以为当前围绕性别和身体身份概念的讨论做出重要贡献，通过证明性别中立和流动性的概念不是现代所独有的，而是可以在古英语文学经典中注意到这一点的普遍证据。

My doctoral thesis will aim to demonstrate that gender criticism of Old English literature can work outside of and dissolve binary oppositions, focussing on presentations on the ungendered body as a response to the growing body of work on how men and women are treated differently.Chapter one will explore Ælfric's homilies, Lives of Saints, and the Old English Martyrology. Christine Rauer's study on 'mann' (Rauer, 2017) and Rhonda McDaniel's work The Third Gender (McDaniel, 2018) demonstrate the possibility of untwining gender and sexuality in hagiographies, with further potential for semantic analysis to uncover emphasis on neutral humanity and morality, as opposed to ecclesiastical status and gender roles. This chapter will also explore the power of metaphor to transform the body into a neutral vessel for the holy spirit and will overall strive to identify to what extent morality and humanity are gendered issues within these genres.Chapter two will focus on medical literature, including Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga. Pre-existing gender criticism, including R.A. Buck's paper on the Leechbook, maintains an unwavering focus on remedies specifically for women, despite observing that 'the largest portion of remedies are aimed at treating the body in general' (Buck, 2000, p. 45). This chapter will therefore analyse the language in a selection of remedies, quantifying nouns directly indicative of gender neutrality and examining explicit authorial comments on gender, to demonstrate that a modern understanding of enforced gender binaries is an inaccurate way to view these medical texts' perception of gender.Chapter three will examine the Anglo-Saxon law codes, which some scholars argue constituted a 'golden age' for women's rights (Clark, 1995). Others note that women's value was based on marital status and childbearing ability (Hough, 2007). However, such criticisms enforce gender binaries where neutrality may be more apt, which this chapter will demonstrate through a quantitative examination of King Ælfred's gendered versus ungendered laws. Furthermore, I will demonstrate the concept of the body as an ungendered commodity, through a semantic analysis of laws on recompenses for bodily injuries and identifying a pattern of explicit comments which emphasise the will of the individual as a gender-neutral trope.The final chapter will examine gender-neutrality and fluidity in Old English poetry, with particular focus on Beowulf, Judith, Wulf and Eadwacer, and The Wife's Lament. As subjects of a large volume of gender criticism, analyses of these poems' female characters typically focus on androgyny, or traits typical to the opposite binary gender (Litton 1993; Hatton 2012). However, through dissembling enforced binaries when reading ambiguous characterisation in Old English poetry, this chapter will demonstrate that, rather than these poets undertaking a radical reversal, neutrality may better capture the poets' intentions.Beyond providing another perspective on these texts, such a thesis could make an important contribution to the current discourse surrounding notions of gender and bodily identity, by demonstrating that concepts of gender-neutrality and fluidity are not exclusive to the modern-day, but rather that rife evidence of this can be noted across the Old English literary canon.