ABSTRACT
This innovative and multidisciplinary collection visits representations and interpretations of Mary Magdalene in the medieval and early modern periods, questioning major scholarly assumptions behind the examination of female saints and their depictions in medieval artworks, literature, and music. Mary Magdalene’s many and various characterizations from reformed prostitute to conversion-figure to devotee of Christ to "apostle to the apostles" to spiritual advisor to the Prince of Marseilles to hermit in the desert, to list just a few examples, mean that the many conflicted representations of Mary Magdalene apply to a staggering variety of cultural material, including art, liturgy, music, literature, theology, hagiography, and the historical record. Furthermore, Mary Magdalene has grown into an extremely popular and controversial figure due to recent books and movies concerning her, and due to a groundswell of general speculation concerning her relationship to Jesus: was she his acquaintance, follower, companion, wife, family-member, or lover? This volume employs a broad spectrum of theoretical methodologies in order to present poststructuralist, postcolonial, postmodernist, hagiographic, and feminist readings of the figure of Mary Magdalene, addressing and interrogating her conflicting roles and the precise relationship between her sacred and secular representations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|66 pages
Mary Magdalene's Roles in Development
part II|64 pages
Mary Magdalene's Roles in Tension
chapter 6|21 pages
Challenging Cluny in England?
part III|65 pages
Mary Magdalene's Roles in Action
chapter 7|18 pages
From Apostola Apostolorum to Provençal Evangelist
chapter 8|27 pages
Mary Magdalene Converts Her Vanities through Song
chapter 9|18 pages
“I wolde I wer as worthy to ben sekyr of thy lofe as Mary Mawdelyn was”
part IV|49 pages
Mary Magdalene's Proto-Feminist and Other Subversive Roles