Torture, Identity, and the Corporeality of Female Sanctity: The Body as Locus of Meaning in the Legend of St Margaret of Antioch

Beresford, Andrew M.

Torture, Identity, and the Corporeality of Female Sanctity: The Body as Locus of Meaning in the Legend of St Margaret of Antioch

Beresford, Andrew M.

Authors

Professor Andrew Beresford a.m.beresford@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

The legend of St Margaret of Antioch problematizes a range of conceptions of selfhood, particularly the relationship between the body and identity, by constantly blurring the dialectical clarity of the opposition between self and other, between internal and external. Margaret, who is lacerated to the point where the inner workings of her body become visible, is swallowed by a dragon, but subsequently bursts outwards through its stomach by making the sign of the cross. She in this way becomes a complex and ambivalent figure, a source of abjection rather than scopic objectification for Olybrius, the pagan inquisitor, but a model of heroic resistance for a partisan Christian audience. In this discussion, which focuses on the previously unedited version of her legend in the Castilian Gran flos sanctorm, particular attention is paid to questions of ontological significance, the so-called ‘pious pornography’ thesis, and the appropriation of the female body as a symbolic locus of meaning.

Citation

Beresford, A. M. (2015). Torture, Identity, and the Corporeality of Female Sanctity: The Body as Locus of Meaning in the Legend of St Margaret of Antioch. Medievalia, 18(2), 179-210

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Sep 14, 2015
Online Publication Date	Nov 22, 2015
Publication Date	Nov 22, 2015
Deposit Date	Mar 22, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Oct 26, 2017
Journal	Medievalia
Print ISSN	0211-3473
Publisher	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	18
Issue	2
Pages	179-210
Publisher URL	http://revistes.uab.cat/medievalia/article/view/v18.1-beresford