Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, English/Literature

This thesis investigates one of the tales within Geoffrey Chaucer's greater works, The Canterbury Tales with a focus on the connection between the prologue of the taleteller and the story that he shares with the other pilgrims. Masochism and antifeminism are two of the most prominent features of Chaucer's Merchant, an impoverished man parading as successful, husband to a woman whom he detests. With a business deep in debt and a wife he refers to only as a shrew, the Merchant attempts to bolster his credibility within the group of pilgrims by weaving a narrative about marriage, lust, and cuckoldry. This thesis explores the dynamics of the Merchant and his tale from a variety of perspectives in order to more deeply understand the motivation behind the tale that is told and the person who tells it. The Merchant's failing marriage spurns the chauvinism that is deeply imbedded in his tale as he preaches the importance of obedience and vilifies women who resist or disobey their husbands. While the Merchant offers the qualities of a successful marriage as inherent fact, it is clear that he has instead shaped his opinion as a result of his own unsuccessful marriage, blaming female disobedience rather than his own deficiencies as a husband. Additionally, this thesis delves into the story that the Merchant tells of two lovers called January and May and the way in which the female body operates as capital within the narrative. Employing a Marxist understanding of commodity on top of Wills' ideas on prosthetics, this thesis underscores the way in which May is used constantly as a resource for her husband. Further, this thesis explores the function that May plays in her marriage to her husband and how her body is used as an extension of January and other male influence and her own agency is stripped from her.

Committee: Labbie Erin Ph.D (Advisor); Fitzgerald Christina Ph.D (Other) Subjects: Literature; Medieval Literature

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1970, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1921, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, History

Medieval Europe was a period of development and change, none of which is more evident than through the transition of medical authority from women and magic to solely men and medicine. At the start of the Middle Ages, magic and medicine held an interwoven relationship, where women could freely practice and function as medical authorities within their communities alongside men. Their presence as healers provided them with a rare opportunity to escape from the traditional confines of the patriarchal society of the Middle Ages. However, the creation of medical universities, which excluded women from enrolling, sought to eliminate the role which magic held within the medical field. With its usefulness in through medicine relegated, an opposition towards magic begun developing and the connection between magic and witchcraft to the nature of women was solidified. Women's already vulnerable status within society added onto the perceived threat of witchcraft opened the door for direct persecution women. Medical practitioners, ecclesiastical writers, the Christian church, governing bodies, and local authorities all contributed to the curation of stereotypes surrounding witchcraft practitioners. As a result, the Inquisition and larger witch hunt movement developed, specifically targeting women. The witchcraft trials were the final deadly product of this movement and were overwhelmingly disproportionate in their indictment and execution of women.

Committee: Christian Raffensperger (Advisor); Nona Moskowitz (Committee Member); Scott Rosenberg (Committee Member) Subjects: Alternative Medicine; Folklore; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Medicine; Medieval History; Middle Ages; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, English (Arts and Sciences)

Saracens served as stock villains in many of the romances of the Middle Ages and informed representations of Ottoman alterity on the early modern stage. As the contrarians of the East v. West binary, Saracens are often viewed as a monolithic entity. The present study does not seek to abolish the binary but instead to nuance it. Each chapter analyzes a different type of Saracen or role that Saracens played in medieval and early modern English literature. In doing so, the study is more concerned with the function of anti-Saracenic representations than with their historical or anthropological inaccuracies.

Committee: Beth Quitslund (Committee Chair); Loren Lybarger (Committee Member); Jill Ingram (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Comparative; Comparative Literature; European History; Islamic Studies; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages; Middle Eastern History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, English

No surviving medieval text puts forward an explicit theologia tangendi (a “theology of touching”). Still, the religious literature of the English Middle Ages is nonetheless replete with devotional acts of touching, reaching, grasping, holding, shaping, and caressing. Touch may constitute one small facet of the phenomenology of religion, but it requires more scholarly attention. That the literature and material culture of the Christian Middle Ages were often oriented toward achieving contact with the divine underscores the need to consider the theological implications of touch. This dissertation puts a name to these myriad, disconnected references to touching that crop up across medieval English literature — a “tactile theology” that acknowledges the centrality of the hands in medieval texts, the lives of those texts, and the lives of their writers and readers. Put simply, tactile theology is a reciprocal process: just as theology shaped medieval understandings of touch, acts of touching, in turn, were avenues for approaching theological questions. The dissertation takes as its primary focus the touch and embodied experience of medieval women because gender difference in the Middle Ages was often described in theological and sensory terms. Using tactile theology as a lens for teasing out the significance of tactile language and metaphor, the following chapters explore how medieval readers and writers considered (sometimes in conflicting terms) women's embodiment and women's participation in religious life. Individual chapters offer case studies in the Junius 11 manuscript of Old English biblical poetry (particularly Genesis B, ca. 960–990), the thirteenth-century Ancrene Wisse (ca. 1225) alongside one of its fifteenth-century Latin translations, and the Book of Margery Kempe (ca. 1438). A final chapter on the medievalism of Emily Dickinson further underscores how tactile theology supports productive readings of women's writing beyond the tradi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leslie Lockett (Advisor); Ethan Knapp (Committee Member); Christopher Jones (Committee Member); Karen Winstead (Advisor) Subjects: Gender Studies; Medieval Literature

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, History

In the medieval era, Scandinavian settlers and raiders (now commonly thought of as “Vikings”) had an influential presence in Ireland, particularly Dublin. While one trend of historical thought views Vikings solely as aggressors in Ireland, newer perspectives have begun to dissect the role of Scandinavians within Ireland under a more neutral lens—one which involves studying the cultural influences and exchanges held between the native and foreign populations. This thesis first describes the ways in which historians have characterized the Viking presence in Ireland, and then examines how the Scandinavians are described in primary sources such as the Annals of Ulster, the Annals of Inisfallen, and the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh. The manner in which the Vikings interact with these populations, the exact names that are being used to describe them (e.g. “Norsemen,” “Danes,” “dark foreigners,” “fair foreigners”), and the examination of how that contributes to the idea of different Scandinavian groups will be considered. Particularly with the sources from the Irish Sea zone, special attention will be paid to how the Scandinavians are being described in order to examine the apparent differentiation in groups of Vikings. Once that is established, it is then necessary to examine ethnicity within a medieval context, as well as looking at specific cultural interactions between the Irish and Scandinavians. Ethnicity was not the motivator or defining factor within society. Rather, kinship, alliances, and overarching lordship held more weight in determining the cohesion of people. Thus, while raiding and more violent interactions did occur, so did a variety of cultural exchanges and developments that allowed for a multi-cultural society to progress throughout the Viking Age. Through broadening the scope of perspective throughout the Irish Sea zone to observe the different units of Scandinavians, the ethnic perceptions and corroborations occurring between the native Irish population (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christian Raffensperger (Advisor); Amy Livingstone (Committee Member); Molly Wood (Committee Member) Subjects: Ethnic Studies; European History; History; Medieval History; Scandinavian Studies

M.A. (Master of Arts in English), Ohio Dominican University, 2021, English

This paper examines Geoffrey Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale using one of Chaucer's most important sources: Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy. Chapter one examines Boethius' contributions to philosophy, his contributions to education, and most importantly, his impact on Chaucer's literary art. Chapter one uses Boethius' Consolation to describe the consolatio genre and provides a contrast between authors like Dante, who use similar philosophical material to place judgement, and Chaucer, who uses philosophical material to promote questions instead of answers, shedding light on individual human choice. Chapter two analyzes the effects of Boethius' Consolation on The Pardoner's Tale. It examines Chaucer's translation of the Consolation, reveals the Boethian question addressed in the Tale—what is the outcome of the wicked?—and demonstrates Chaucer's ability to use medieval sermon structure to arrive at consolation. Chapter three surveys a flurry of scholarship surrounding perceptions of the Pardoner's audience and resulting character. This chapter encourages readers to apply a Boethian lens, considering consolation genre in addition to medieval sermon structure in order to ascertain a more contextually complete, and therefore hopeful, view of the Pardoner that is at odds with the predominant view of the character's ultimate fate.

Committee: Jeremy Glazier (Advisor); Martin Brick (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Medieval Literature; Philosophy

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, French, Italian, and Classical Studies

Language has the dual power of abstracted meaning and physical being. The duality that I advance here is based on the analysis of the theories of Maurice Blanchot, Stephane Mallarme, and Jacques Ranciere. These three authors provide a framework through which I argue that all writing has an equally important abstract dimension as it does physical dimension. By abstract dimension, I mean the lexical connotations that are abstracted away from the physical work. By physical dimension, I mean the purely tangible and material-without any lexical meaning. This duality is apparent in works such as concrete poetry, images (films), and manuscripts. I use the poetry of Stephane Mallarme and Guillaume Apollinaire and films of Jean-Luc Godard as a modern proof of this duality; I use several medieval manuscript works as a historical comparison. These works clearly show the importance of the physical materiality of a work. I argue that this material importance holds true for all writing and all literature, not only images and poetic objects.

Committee: Audrey Wasser Dr. (Advisor); Anna Klosowska Dr. (Committee Member); Elisabeth Hodges Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: European Studies; Modern Language

M.A. (Master of Arts in English), Ohio Dominican University, 2020, English

The four poems found in the Cotton Nero A.x. manuscript, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, have gone unattributed for 600 years. This paper examines possible reasons why there have been no definitive names assigned to the poems. Suggestions are also made as to the type of person who may have written them, and reasons for his anonymity, based on who he was. Christianity, the medieval time period, and King Arthur's court are explored to help explain attribution for monastic authorship.

Committee: Jeremy Glazier (Advisor); Imali Abala (Committee Member); Martin Brick (Committee Chair) Subjects: Literature; Medieval Literature; Religion

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2016, Theology

The theological paradigm of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) posits two distinct roles for women. In the Roman Catholic Church in the High and Late Middle Ages, women were offered two roles that correspond to Luke's story. Mary, according to Jesus, having chosen the “better” path, is the woman who exemplified discipleship through the consecrated life, while Martha is the medieval housewife. In the medieval church, the role of “Mary,” which was a life of virginal devotion to God, was presented to women as the better path, but women were often forced by family and church into the role of “Martha,” a life of chaste devotion to God through marriage and family life. Augustine's influential theology ascribed greater value to the contemplative life, while Meister Eckhart gives greater value to the active life in his sermon on Mary and Martha. Which is the better path? Or is this a false choice? While this is a question that is relevant in any age, this thesis will demonstrate how the story of Mary and Martha as presented by both Augustine and Eckhart is a false dichotomy using examples from Eckhart's time to show that women both in the consecrated life and the married life exemplify aspects of both contemplative and active lives. This paper will give a brief overview of Augustine's exegesis as well as Meister Eckhart's contrasting sermons on Luke 10. Next, I will discuss the role of women in marriage and family life and some of the struggles and decisions they went through which may have been a cause for their conversion from a “Martha” life of domesticity to a “Mary” role enabling them to take on the devotion of Jesus, which would eventually lead some women to sainthood. Then, I will discuss women's role in religious life and how they moved from a “Mary” to a “Martha” role to effect change within the church in spite of great adversity from their male counterparts. Lastly, I will conclude that the paradigm of Mary and Martha in the Middle Ages is relevant to post-modern (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Groppe PhD (Committee Chair); Kristine Suna-Koro PhD (Committee Member); Christopher Pramuk PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Religion; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Music

The foundation of the Order of Preachers in 1216 by Dominic of Osma (ca. 1173-1221, and the founder's own meritorious life—exemplifying the virtues of a vir evangelicus for his spiritual descendants—represent a key moment in the religious history of the Middle Ages. Receiving its definitive form in the mid-1250s, the Dominican Rite provided for the liturgical celebration and memorial of its founder with two feasts: the principal feast, 5 August, held on the vigil of his death, and the translation, 24 May, celebrating the transfer of his relics on that date in 1233, during which a miraculous fragrance (odor mirificus) and many healings occurred, speeding along Dominic's canonization, which occurred on 3 July 1234. The two offices for these feasts developed in stages similar to those of the liturgy of the Rite to which they belonged. In addition to a study of these developments, the present dissertation examines the proper chants of the offices and presents the results in commentaries on each item. This analysis reveals that the texts were carefully constructed, with attention to narrative continuity based on Dominic's early vitae, allusion to biblical and patristic sources, and the creation of striking poetic effects. Together with their melodies, which like the texts were newly composed, these pieces create an official liturgical memory of Dominic, providing a common formation, education, and understanding of the faith for the members of the Order. Each office emphasizes different aspects of Dominic's person and his life. The principal feast reminds the assembled brethren of the life, miracles, death, and heavenly glorification of their founder, describing his virtues and works, and presenting him as a model worthy of imitation. The feast of the Translation focuses on the historical translation itself—the disinterment of Dominic's remains and the miracles accompanying it—highlighting Christ as the source of these wonders and Dominic as heavenly intercessor. Th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Charles Atkinson (Advisor) Subjects: Middle Ages; Music; Theology

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This thesis examines queer identity in the twelfth-century theological treatise Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx, and the anonymous thirteenth-century Aucassin and Nicolette. I argue that these texts queer medieval and contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality, both spiritually and narratively. In Part One of this project, I focus on Rievaulx Abbey in the North of England as a space for free expression from strict social binaries of sex and gender. Here I focus on Aelred, an abbot who promoted close, intimate bonds with others as a means of understanding theological notions of God in his text, Spiritual Friendship. Rather than contributing to the exploration of Aelred sexuality as a gay man, my aim in this chapter is to offer a shift in focus towards Aelred's gender expression and performance. Ultimately, I argue, Aelred queers traditional notions of love, God, and Cistercian theology through his emphasis on community and shared love in Spiritual Friendship. In Part Two, I move from English mysticism to French chantefable, or “song-story,” in Aucassin and Nicolette. I argue that the text engenders in its two main characters queer identity through the inversion of traditional gender roles. Further, I argue that the performative aspect of the text allows for a dispersal of transgressive, queer identity via performance. In doing so, I push the definition of queer further than the tale's characters, arguing that the text itself becomes queer in its interaction with the reader. In expanding the genre and scope of this project from twelfth-century England to thirteenth-century France, I illustrate how expansive queer identity was in the Middle Ages.

Committee: Christopher Roman (Advisor); Ryan Hediger (Committee Member); Ann Martinez (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1979, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Literature

MA, Kent State University, 2016, College of the Arts / School of Art

Throughout history, the story of Adam and Eve and the lost land of Eden has played a major role in the West on attitudes towards gender, sexuality, temptation and deceit. Visual spectacles of Adam and Eve could be found in nearly every cathedral by the 15th and 16th centuries across western Europe. The events from Genesis 1-3 were displayed within several illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and even commissioned narratives for personal art during the latter half of the Renaissance. The works discussed in this thesis span from mosaics, painting, sculpture, and relief, to woodcuts and engravings. The artists and works mentioned have been examined and appropriated to the conventions and exegeses of the early Church fathers as well as the viewpoints of several western theologians. Through careful analysis, this study focuses on the detail, placement, and activeness of Adam, Eve, God and the evil serpent found within the images discussed. By taking a closer look at these powerful images from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the attitudes of the Church, patron and artist can be observed and interpreted.

Committee: Gustav Medicus PhD (Advisor); Diane Scillia PhD (Committee Member); John-Michael Warner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2016, World Literature

This study examines anxieties about bodily and spiritual contamination expressed via exorcism and possession in Gregory of Tours' hagiographical work Vita patrum . There are no less than thirteen references to possession in this text, ranging from descriptions of specific incidents to more general comments on saints and exorcism. In many of the episodes, the mouth plays a prominent role in both the diagnosis of possession and the subsequent exorcism. Being an inherently liminal space, the mouth is an excellent site at which to observe and interrogate the boundary phenomena connected with the condition of possession. A focus on this particular aperture, which serves as a passage between seen and unseen, interior and exterior, brings concerns about bodily integrity and purity to the fore. Although studies of possession in the New Testament and the high and later Middle Ages abound, comparatively limited attention has been paid to the phenomena in the early Middle Ages. By closely examining the role that the mouth plays in these descriptions of possession in Gregory's account, this paper hopes to add to a recent bloom of interest in early medieval topics and to underscore the role of the body in religious practices in sixth-century Gaul.

Committee: Florin Berindeanu PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Comparative Literature

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2014, Theological Studies

Saint Catherine of Siena wrote one of the most theologically orthodox works of mysticism, Dialogue on Divine Providence. Unlike other mystics of the later middle ages, Catherine's Dialogue provided a highly doctrinal theology written in her own vernacular language. Catherine's mystical theology demonstrates influence of several prominent schools of theological thought, most notably the moral theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Like Aquinas, Catherine emphasizes the habituation and practice of the virtues, above all the virtue of charity. Aquinas and Catherine both understood charity as directed towards the two same ends - God and neighbor for God's sake - and as manifesting itself through outward spiritual and corporeal practices. Catherine, however, wrote with a very particular audience in mind - the increasingly literate laity. As demonstrated in her own letters, Catherine understood her writing for a lay audience as spiritual instruction and therefore writing served as an act of charity for her.

Committee: Sandra Yocum Ph.D (Advisor); William Portier Ph.D (Committee Member); William Johnston Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Regional Studies; Religious History; Spirituality; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, English

In this dissertation, I provide a reconstruction and analysis of the Anglo-Saxon conceptions of impairment and disability, as they are preserved within the textual record of the period. I develop the Old English lexeme unhælu as the most appropriate term for these conceptions, as it reflects the holism that is central to the Anglo-Saxon understanding of health and ability. Unhælu is a large and fluid category, which covers physical impairment, illness, and injury, and which takes into consideration their impact on both the body's functionality and appearance. Importantly, it does not seem to cover mental health impairments and other similar conditions. It may perhaps be best understood in terms of Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's notion of the “extraordinary body,” which brings together various kinds of corporeal otherness, such as impairment, deformity, monstrosity, and mutilation. Consequently, this dissertation focuses on defining the polysemous concept of unhælu, determining how the Anglo-Saxons perceived the concept, and discovering how these beliefs impacted the lives of unhal people. To achieve these aims, I employ rigorous textual and linguistic analysis, and adapt the insights of present-day disability theory to an early medieval context. In the opening chapters, I begin by establishing the linguistic and educational foundations of the Anglo-Saxon conception of unhælu. Chapter One examines the Old English lexicon that reveals how they spoke and thought about impairment, while Chapter Two considers the school-room texts that would have served as the contemporary equivalent of their disability theory. In the following chapters, I discuss what the Anglo-Saxons' various responses to unhælu reveal about their perception of the state. Chapter Three uses the medical texts to provide a detailed reconstruction of unhælu, as suggested by the leeches' remedies and their understanding of etiology. Chapter Four builds on this foundation by employing the law-codes to further (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leslie Lockett (Advisor); Christopher A. Jones (Committee Member); Brenda Brueggemann (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages

MA, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

For nearly a century, Ohio's Cleveland Museum of Art has stood as a world-renowned collector of works of art from all corners of the earth, including ones from the European Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500 AD). The CMA has also recently undertaken a massive reinstallation project begun in 2005, which allowed it a rare opportunity to rethink its presentation of the entire collection, to refocus goals of making it more relevant and engaging for visitors, and to implement the use of interpretive technology to provide visitors an opportunity to access more information. Through a museological framework, the basic question this project examines is how the staff at the Cleveland Museum of Art has presented the history and art of the Middle Ages through the new medieval galleries, and through their interpretive and educational tools and techniques. This study argues that the interpretive and educational practices for the medieval galleries at the Cleveland Museum of Art demonstrate how opportunities for meaning-making are created for visitors. This is done with various elements of interpretation, which includes grouping and arrangement of objects, aesthetics of the galleries, informational labels and panels, and supplemental technology. These all stress a connection to the people of the Middle Ages to help visitors experience what the world was like for people who saw and used the art in that time. There are also many educational programs that focus on teaching visitors about the Middle Ages specifically, including classroom programs, traditional programs, and programs designed for all ages to make learning fun while also providing context. A study of the educational and interpretive practices at the Cleveland Museum of Art that pertain to the medieval collection demonstrates that they aim to facilitate visitor-object interactions, increase opportunities to make meaning and learn from objects, and to make the art accessible to the public. This has been done through crafting a narr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John R. Jameson PhD (Advisor); Kiersten F. Latham PhD (Committee Member); Kim M. Gruenwald PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Art History; Education; Educational Technology; History; Information Science; Medieval History; Middle Ages; Museum Studies; Museums

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Arts and Sciences : English and Comparative Literature

The loathly lady is a character whose special knowledge and social position combine with her physical undesirability to mark her as marginal. The loathly lady is Other-in part simply because she is female-but more than her gender, her physical constitution and lack of societal connectedness illustrate the multiple, systematic oppressions inherent in medieval culture. The loathly lady knows a secret which is crucial to the central courtly culture; in every case she possesses knowledge which the patriarchal society, or at least one of its members, needs in order to survive and thrive. This study examines the loathly lady in Beowulf, the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, The Clerk's Tale, and several grail quest romances, especially Perceval and Parzival. In Beowulf, Grendel's mother serves as the prototypical loathly lady, a character much beyond the boundaries of acceptable society; her battle with Beowulf is central in that Beowulf cannot integrate Grendel's mother's knowledge of female physicality, motherhood, and the lore of the past. Because he wins the battle yet loses this war, Beowulf's dynasty ends with him, and with his death, his kingdom is jeopardized. The Wife of Bath, the old woman of her story, and their continental grail quest counterparts serve as the core of this study-the marginality combined with the alternative wisdom these characters possess define the loathly lady motif. Lastly, Griselda of the Clerk's Tale adds the twist of marginality based in social class, a stigma which needs to be overcome in order for her message to be heard.

Committee: Lowanne Jones (Advisor) Subjects: