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Record Number: 7305 Author(s)/Creator(s): Lavezzo , Kathy. Contributor(s): Title: Gregory's Boys: Aelfric and the Homoerotic Production of English Whiteness Source: Old English Newsletter 29, 3 (Spring 1996): Description: Article Type: Conference Paper Abstract Subject (See Also): Ælfric, Abbot of Eynsham- Homily on Saint Gregory Gregory I the Great, Pope, Saint Homoeroticism Race and Racism Whites Award Note: Geographic Area: British Isles Century: 10-11 Primary Evidence: Illustrations: Table: Abstract: Theorists of otherness and racial identity in the medieval west have, by and large, brought these concerns to bear upon "orientalist" texts - artifacts concerned with, for example, the racial constructions that emerge when an English traveler (pilgrim, crusader, etc.) encounters the strange and barbarous inhabitants of foreign territories. But what ethnic fantasies obtain when a Western people are themselves situated in the position of other - as the English are in the famous legend of Gregory the Great's encounter with a group of English slave boys? With the aim of shedding light on precisely this question, this paper explores the national fantasies that inhere around the original production a white, English and Christian masculinity in the myth, as it appears in Œlfric's homily on Gregory. Identifying with Gregory as he gazes upon the beautiful boys exposed for sale in the forum, Œlfric and his Anglo-Saxon audience enjoy the pleasure of imagining themselves not as subjects, but as objects perceived by another. And of course, as heathen slaves located in the past, the boys are indeed spiritually and temporally other to Anglo-Saxon consumers of the legend, just as they are spiritually and spactially other, from a "corner of the world," to Gregory. What mitigates any dangers entailed by this enjoyment of that is especially foregrounded in Œlfric's vernacularization of the legend, in which Gregory identifies in the slaves a transcending whiteness that opposes their allegiance to a "black devil." It is this whiteness that fantastically bridges not only the gap between Gregory and the foreign heathen slaves before him, but also that gap which lies between the Anglo-Saxons' barbaric ancestry and their contemporary association with a Roman Christian empire. Morever, this fantastic overcoming of difference is as homoerotic as it is racist, since it is a masculine subject, Gregory, who enjoys the visual pleasures offered by white English masculinity. Engaging with contemporary theories of race and the sex/gender system, I demonstrate how taking this oft-cited but rarely interrogated legend seriously can offer us a valuable look into the contradictory wishes inherent in the construction of English whiteness [Reproduced by permission of Robert Schicler, the “Abstracts of Papers in Anglo-Saxon Studies” editor, and the editors of the “Old English Newsletter.”]. Related Resources: Author's Affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara Conference Info: - , - Year of Publication: 1996. Language: English ISSN/ISBN: 00301973

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