Rhetoric of the Anchorhold: Space, Place and Body within the Discourses of Enclosures

(Hardback)

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Description

This book examines from a variety of perspectives, and offers a range of interpretations, of the type of rhetoric associated with the anchoritic experience during the Middle Ages and draws conclusions on the many purposes of that rhetoric. In particular, each chapter will aim to unravel aspects of the often complex webs of association embedded within the rhetoric and imagery of anchoritic literature and the ways in which these associations travelled from within the anchorhold to the wider community of the laity beyond its walls. In so doing, it will argue for the centrality of anchoritic spirituality to the religious climate of the later Middle Ages in spite of the seemingly marginalized status of the anchorite within the social community which housed her/him.

Author Bio

Dr. Herbert McAvoy is Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Wales Swansea. She has published for UWP twice previously and also for CUP. The contributors are from UK, American, Japanese and European universities.