The Generation of Identity in Late Medieval Hagiography: Speaking the Saint

An interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking study that examines the depiction of female saints in a wide range of medieval texts. The author identifies two distinct but equal voices. The first is the controlling masculine voice that defines the identity of its holy subject as saint and woman. The second is the concealed, subversive feminine voice articulated through cracks in the surface narrative. Ashton deploys the feminist theory of Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray to illuminate the portrayals of these women.