Defamiliarization in the Hagiographies of the Katherine Group: an Anchoress’ Reading

Abstract

Abstract: This article studies the three hagiographies of the Katherine Group (Seinte Katerine, Seinte Marherete, and Seinte Iuliene), focusing on an anchoress’ reading of these texts. It argues that in reading these hagiographical legends, the anchoress engages in a spectatorship based on defamiliarization or estrangement. Deliberately discouraging their readers & om uncritical aff ective stirrings for the saints, the legends invite the anchoress to see beyond this bodily trauma to the heavenly purpose of the suff ering. Situating itself within scholarship by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne and Sarah Salih, this article contends that an anchoritic reader gazes not upon naked tortured fl esh, but upon the divine foundation underpinning this abuse.

Keywords: female spirituality, early Middle English literature, saints, suff ering, anchorites, Katherine Group, Seinte Katerine, Seinte Marherete, Seinte Iuliene.