MARIAN MATERNITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLA

LONG, MARY BETH

ISBN 10: 1526191601 / ISBN 13: 9781526191601

Published by Manchester University Press, 2025

Seller Inventory # NW9781526191601

Synopsis:

Marian maternity in late-medieval England takes advantage of the fifteenth century’s intense interest in the Virgin Mary, the best-documented mother of the medieval period, to examine the constructions and performances of maternity in vernacular religious texts. By bringing together texts and authors that are not often discussed in tandem, this study offers a rich examination of the multiple factors at play as Marian material circulated among experienced devotional readers.

Taking a close look at the private devotional reading of late-medieval patrons, the book shows how texts including Chaucer’s poetry, Margery Kempe’s Boke, and legendaries of female saints are saturated with indirect references to and imitations of the Virgin. Marian maternity in late-medieval England employs a matricentric feminist approach to discern how readers’ devotional literacies inform their understanding and imitation of the Virgin’s maternal practice. Attending to internal cues in the texts, to manuscript contexts, and to the evidence and content of readers’ multiple literacies, the author examines Marian maternity as both theological concept and imitable practice. The result is a book that explains late-medieval perceptions of Mary’s maternity and sets them against readers’ devotional, emotional and relational circumstances.

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About the Author: Mary Beth Long is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Arkansas. -- .

Bibliographic Details

Title: MARIAN MATERNITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLA
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: NEW