UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Supernatural and the Limits of Materiality in Medieval Histories, Travelogues, and Romances From William of Malmesbury to Geoffrey Chaucer Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9ck303t5 Author McGraw, Matthew Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE The Supernatural and the Limits of Materiality in Medieval Histories, Travelogues, and Romances From William of Malmesbury to Geoffrey Chaucer A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Matthew Theismann McGraw December 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. John M. Ganim, Chairperson Dr. Deborah Willis Dr. Andrea Denny-Brown Copyright by Matthew Theismann McGraw 2013 The Dissertation of Matthew Theismann McGraw is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Supernatural and the Limits of Materiality in Medieval Histories, Travelogues, and Romances From William of Malmesbury to Geoffrey Chaucer by Matthew Theismann McGraw Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in English University of California, Riverside, December 2013 Dr. John M. Ganim, Chairperson The supernatural, broadly defined as magic, marvels, wonders, and miracles, might at first seem to be wholly separate from material goods and the cultural practices surrounding material objects; miracles occur solely through divine grace, and magic would logically seem to involve making things happen without using physical force. Yet, in the depiction of the supernatural in medieval texts, miracles, marvels, wonders, and magic all depend in some way or another upon material goods. At the same time, the supernatural has a recursive effect upon materiality in the texts in this study; it functions as an amplifier of signification.
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