Marian Maternity in Late-Medieval England

Marian maternity in late-medieval England takes advantage of the fifteenth centuryÂ’s intense interest in the Virgin Mary, the best-documented mother of the medieval period, to examine the constructions and performances of maternity in vernacular religious texts. By bringing together texts and authors that are not often discussed in tandem, this study offers a rich examination of the multiple factors at play as Marian material circulated among experienced devotional readers. Taking a close look at the private devotional reading of late-medieval patrons, the book shows how texts including ChaucerÂ’s poetry, Margery KempeÂ’s Boke, and legendaries of female saints are saturated with indirect references to and imitations of the Virgin. Marian maternity in late-medieval England employs a matricentric feminist approach to discern how readersÂ’ devotional literacies inform their understanding and imitation of the VirginÂ’s maternal practice. Attending to internal cues in the texts, to manuscript contexts, and to the evidence and content of readersÂ’ multiple literacies, the author examines Marian maternity as both theological concept and imitable practice. The result is a book that explains late-medieval perceptions of MaryÂ’s maternity and sets them against readersÂ’ devotional, emotional and relational circumstances.

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