Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7522
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Tobin , Lee Ann.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Give the Saint Her Due: Hagiographical Values for Chaucer’s Second Nun’s Tale and Graham Greene’s "The End of the Affair" [When approaching Saint Celia (protagonist of the Second Nun’s Tale) and Sarah Miles (adulterous protagonist of Greene’s twentieth-century novel), modern critics perceive both of these heroines in a negative manner (deeming them disrespectful or unbelievable as female exemplars). However, such critics abide by rational and objective perspectives which are inappropriate for analyzing hagiographical literature. When viewed from a mystical and spiritual perspective, both heroines radically overturn male power structures and exhibit female strength and virginal power. While Greene revises the hagiographical tradition in his modern-day saint’s life, the essential features of the medieval genre remain unchanged. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Studia Mystica 14, 40212 (Summer/Fall 1991): Pages 48 - 60.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Conference Session Proposals
  • Subject (See Also): Adultery in Literature Cecilia, Saint in Literature Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poet- Canterbury Tales- Second Nun’s Tale Conversion, Religious in Literature Hagiography Historical Novels Literary Critics Literary Genres Literature- Verse Mysticism Power in Litera
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Colorado at Boulder
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1991.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 01617222