Torture, Identity, and the Corporeality of Female Sanctity: The Body as Locus of Meaning in the Legend of St Margaret of Antioch

Beresford, Andrew M.

Abstract

The legend of St Margaret of Antioch problematizes a range of conceptions of selfhood, particularly the relationship between the body and identity, by constantly blurring the dialectical clarity of the opposition between self and other, between internal and external. Margaret, who is lacerated to the point where the inner workings of her body become visible, is swallowed by a dragon, but subsequently bursts outwards through its stomach by making the sign of the cross. She in this way becomes a complex and ambivalent figure, a source of abjection rather than scopic objectification for Olybrius, the pagan inquisitor, but a model of heroic resistance for a partisan Christian audience. In this discussion, which focuses on the previously unedited version of her legend in the Castilian Gran flos sanctorm, particular attention is paid to questions of ontological significance, the so-called ‘pious pornography’ thesis, and the appropriation of the female body as a symbolic locus of meaning.

Citation

Beresford, A. M. (2015). Torture, Identity, and the Corporeality of Female Sanctity: The Body as Locus of Meaning in the Legend of St Margaret of Antioch. Medievalia, 18(2), 179-210

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 14, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Nov 22, 2015
• Publication Date: Nov 22, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 22, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 26, 2017
• Journal: Medievalia
• Print ISSN: 0211-3473
• Electronic ISSN: 2014-8410
• Publisher: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 179-210
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1416366
• Publisher URL: http://revistes.uab.cat/medievalia/article/view/v18.1-beresford