Introduction to the Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives Special Collection

Katharine Handel

doi:10.16995/olh.572

Abstract

Medieval hagiographical narratives were often used in the construction of identity, both institutional and individual, and also demonstrate the permeability of the supposed boundaries between communities such as Latinate and vernacular readers and religious and lay audiences. This introduction to the “Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives” Special Collection provides a brief overview of the role of saints’ lives in medieval literary culture and identifies some intersections between hagiographical writing and other areas of medieval life and literature.

Highlights

Introduction to theAuthors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives Special Collection Katharine HandelMedieval hagiographical narratives were often used in the construction of identity, both institutional and individual, and demonstrate the permeability of the supposed boundaries between communities such as Latinate and vernacular readers and religious and lay audiences
The environments in which they were consumed were varied: they could be read privately, in small groups, and performed for larger audiences in both liturgical and secular settings, such as mealtime edification in monastic refectories, parts of religious services, and entertainment for lay visitors to religious communities. This is linked to the author’s choice of language: the complex interplay of Latin and vernacular literary cultures in the Middle Ages meant that an author’s decision to write in a particular language had implications for the type of audience they envisioned for their text
Alicia Spencer-Hall’s article explores how the life of St Marie of Oignies acted as a source of “symbolic capital” for different authors and communities, a process which continues in modern-day Wallonian tourism, highlighting how saints could be appropriated for various identificatory purposes and showing that their lives and afterlives continue to be negotiated today

Summary

Introduction

Introduction to theAuthors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives Special Collection Katharine HandelMedieval hagiographical narratives were often used in the construction of identity, both institutional and individual, and demonstrate the permeability of the supposed boundaries between communities such as Latinate and vernacular readers and religious and lay audiences. Katharine Handel, ‘Introduction to the Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives Special Collection’ (2020) 6(1): 2 Open Library of Humanities. AUTHORS, NARRATIVES, AND AUDIENCES IN MEDIEVAL SAINTS’ LIVES

Results

Conclusion