Wednesday 16th May - Huw Grange (University of Kent & University of Oxford)

Monstrous Doubles: Showing & Warning in Medieval French Hagiography

Respondent: Pauline Souleau (Merton College, Oxford) 

17:00-18:30 

Massey Room, Balliol College 

Wine and nibbles provided 

Paper and Discussion

Huw began his paper with a discussion of medieval etymological approaches to monstrosity, exemplified by St Augustine’s observation that ‘monsters are signs by which something is demonstrated’ and Isidore of Seville’s argument for the semiotic provenance of monstrosity (from the Latin root of monstrare, ‘to demonstrate’).Turning to the anthropologist and philosopher René Girard’s more recent work on monsters as social boucs émissaires (scapegoats), Huw evaluated Girard’s thesis that monsters are the outcome of mimetic desire by applying this theory to his own research on the role of monstrosity in late medieval vernacular saints’ lives. Whereas Girard argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition tends towards the renunciation of mimetic desire and an unveiling and unmasking of the bouc émissaire mechanism, Huw’s reading of medieval lives of St Margaret and St George (amongst others) showed that this was far from being the case. He argued instead for the need to recognize the ethical duality of the monster as an externalization which both conceals and reveals the monstrosity that is internal to the crowd.

As respondent, Pauline Souleau noted that the same structures of monstrosity highlighted by Huw can also be seen in non-hagiographical medieval texts (for example, in the Chroniques of Froissart). A flurry of questions followed, ranging from the talismanic use of hagiographies during the period, to the visuality of monstrosity as demonstration, the theatrical staging of hagiographies, and the relevance of the Ovide moralisé. Thanks to Huw for an excellent paper and to all participants for a lively session and discussion.

Abstract

From pestilential dragons to snake-breathing Saracens, the monsters that fascinated audiences
of vernacular saints’ lives in the later centuries of the Middle Ages continue to intrigue to
this day. This paper takes a two-pronged approach to understanding hagiography’s terrifying
antagonists – the medieval etymologist’s account of monsters as creatures that ‘show’ (monstrare)
and ‘warn’ (monere), and René Girard’s theorisation of ‘monstrous doubles’ and the monstrous
scapegoat – investigating common ground between the two. We shall explore several manuscript
versions of the biographies of Sts George and Margaret, including a copy of a George life that
a knight wished to take with him to the battlefield and a copy of a Margaret life that renders the
dragon she fights as peculiarly Jewish. If some hagiographical tales were understood to unveil
scapegoat mechanisms in a bid to put a permanent end to mimetic violence, medieval audiences
could employ the very same tales to justify violent acts against various social cohorts deemed
undesirable, and indeed more than a little monstrous.

Biography

Huw completed his doctoral studies at St John’s College, Cambridge earlier this year, having
submitted a dissertation investigating notions of corporeality in French and Occitan saints’
lives. Since October 2011 he has held a Teaching Fellowship in Oxford’s Faculty of Medieval &
Modern Languages and since February 2012 he has been working on the Elucidarium Project,
based at the University of Kent, tracing the fame and fortune of vernacular versions of a twelfth-
century encyclopaedic text. He has had articles published on medieval hagiography, Occitan lyric,
and the gruesome legend of the Eaten Heart.