Gender-Neutrality and Gender-Fluidity in Old English Literature

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...