Thomas Becket in the South English Legendaries: Genre, Materiality, and Why the Reader Matters
Date
2023-03-21
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-5656-9664
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
The South English Legendaries (SEL) is a thirteenth-century collection of saints’ legends. More than just a work of hagiography, this collection demonstrates late medieval genre hybridisation and literary experimentation in the legend of St. Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century martyred arch¬bishop of Canterbury, which exhibits a variety of genre-bending tropes. This project explores how poets incorporate the genre expectations of hagiography, historiography, and romance to capture the attention of a broad audience. The presence of these genres in the legend of Becket corresponds to three traditional perceptions of Becket: as a religious figure, a historical figure, and a legendary figure. Drawing on the fields of “New Philology,” genre theory, and reading reception theory, es¬pecially Jauss’ “horizon of expectations,” I argue that the SEL is a work of “edutainment” and explore the dynamic relationship between readers and their concepts of genre. I identify three types of readers—authors, scribes, and manuscript users—across three different stages of the SEL— composition, compilation, and reception—and examine how genre informed interpretation. The SEL poet participated in both secular and religious literary traditions to captivate a broad audience, while the scribes who copied, compiled, and disseminated the Becket legend employed paratextual manuscript features to encourage specific interpretations. Three historical figures, Robert of Gloucester, Sir John Prise, and Sir Robert Cotton, provide evidence of reading engagement to show how interpretations of the Becket legend evolved. The SEL Becket legend was composed as a romance, disseminated as a saint’s life, and read as a work of history.
Description
Keywords
Medieval Literature, Manuscript Studies, Genre Studies, Hagiography, Thomas Becket
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
English
Program
English