Things left behind: matter, narrative and the cult of St Edmund of East Anglia

D111 Medieval History

Gourlay, Andrew ; Smith, Julia

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Humanities

关键词: St. Edmund, East Anglia, kingand martyr, Bury St Edmunds, medieval religion, cult of saints, relics, narrative, matter, materiality, actor network theory, agency, object biography, medieval England, eleventh century, twelfth century.;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8265/1/2017Gourlayphd1.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

This thesis provides a detailed and interdisciplinary analysis of one of medievalEngland’s most enduring saints’ cults: that of St Edmund of East Anglia. Focussinglargely on the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the surviving material, literary and visualevidence is examined through the twin lenses of matter and narrative, thus offering anovel means of perceiving medieval saintly devotion. Borrowing elements from AlfredGell’s distributed agency theory, Michel Callon and Bruno Latour’s Actor NetworkTheory (ANT) and notions of ‘object biography’, chapter one develops a bespoke meansof modelling the spatial, temporal and material dimensions of cult. Saints’ cults areimagined as expansive and entangled phenomena, focussed around a central ‘relicnexus’. Following this, chapter two employs these ideas to analyse the historical andmaterial growth of Bury St Edmunds as a cult centre. This chapter demonstrates thatEdmund’s materiality both played a significant role in determining the form his culttook and positioned him within an elite cadre of incorrupt saints. Switching to thenarrative lens, chapter three contrasts early chronicle texts with later hagiography andcharter evidence. This chapter shows that, across succeeding generations, Edmund’slegend shifted in line with contemporary historical circumstances to become entwinedwith the institutional identity of Bury St Edmunds Abbey. Chapter four expands thenarrative analysis to consider the consequences of literary and oral dissemination.Tracing the literary transmission of a story implicating Edmund in the death of SweinForkbeard, this chapter reveals how a series of twelfth-century, historical and politicalwriters adapted this legend for their own purposes. Yet, far from being limited toliterature, the chapter further argues that Edmund’s narrative was couched within afluid oral context. Chapter four concludes by employing the theoretical structuresdeveloped in chapter one to model the narrative environment of Edmund’s cult.Chapter five focusses on how Edmund was visualised at his cult centre. A particularexample of pictorial storytelling produced at Bury, the miniature sequence in PierpontMorgan MS M.736, is analysed to reveal that visual representations provided a means ofexpounding both the material and narrative sensibilities of cult. Chapter six expands thevisual and material discussion. A range of media, from large-scale wall art to small-scalearchaeological finds, are used to show that Edmund and his narrative could bepresenced in personal and idiosyncratic ways through a variety of objects. Chapterseven draws together the interrelated strands from the preceding sections and discusseswhat we can say about the relationship between matter and narrative in cult. Itconcludes that combinations of Edmund’s materiality and narrative could be combined,to create the unique truths that fashioned personal and corporate identities. Edmund’scult, it is suggested, was a multi-faceted and expansive phenomenon which, althoughbased around his shrine at Bury St Edmunds, held meaning well beyond. Following this,some concluding thoughts are offered on how the theoretical framework developed inthis thesis might be adapted and applied to similar cult structures.