Description
In this study, I explore to what extent an erotic orientation toward others’ spiritual characteristics, specifically with regard to “clean” souls, was strongly idealized in at least two medieval English locales, the central Midlands and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Where a hetero-genital orientation was pervasively considered proper with regard to erotic attraction then as today, I propose that, additionally, a desire to associate on a spiritual level with not only those of the same religion but also of like spiritual purity governed desire. As I will argue, this orientation to a spiritual sameness stemmed from a meme of preferred association in life with other Christians with clean souls. I refer to this desire for association with Christian sameness as a homo-spiritual orientation. As I will argue, this homospirituality was the primary basis of erotic desire portrayed and prescribed in the evidence considered in this study. In sum, I argue that fifteenth-century English ways of knowing and feeling desire, reflected in models of desire in romance poetry in these two locales, evidences an erotic orientation based on homospiritual lines of attraction. Moreover, in each area, the models of lay homospiritual erotics were preceded by and coincided with religious writings on the subject that contributed to an overall intellectual current.
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Details
Title
- Same-soul desire in late Medieval England
Contributors
- Ambler, B. Joy (Author)
- Sturges, Robert S. (Thesis advisor)
- Newhauser, Richard G. (Committee member)
- Fessenden, Tracy (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2017
Subjects
- Medieval History
- Gender Studies
- Literature, Medieval
- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Holy Women
- Medieval Christianity
- Middle English Romance
- Queer Theory
- Sexual Epistemology
- Queer Theory
- English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.
- Romances, English--History and criticism.
- Poetry, Medieval--History and criticism.
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Note
- thesisPartial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2017
- bibliographyIncludes bibliographical references
- Field of study: English
Citation and reuse
Statement of Responsibility
by Joy Ambler