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Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2018 Splitting Hairs: The rC eation and Dissolution of Boundaries in Thirteenth-Century French Literature Cassidy Devon Thompson Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, and the Medieval Studies Commons Recommended Citation Thompson, Cassidy Devon, "Splitting Hairs: The rC eation and Dissolution of Boundaries in Thirteenth-Century French Literature" (2018). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1592. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1592 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Romance Languages and Literatures Dissertation Examination Committee: Julie Singer, Chair Tili Boon Cuillé Seth Graebner Jessica Rosenfeld Harriet Stone Splitting Hairs: The Creation and Dissolution of Boundaries in Thirteenth-Century French Literature by Cassidy Devon Thompson A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2018 St. Louis, Missouri © 2018, Cassidy Devon Thompson Table of Contents List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………………iii Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………………………….…iv Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………..vi Introduction .………………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: Hair in Thirteenth-Century Scientific and Medical Discourse ...……………………39 Chapter 2: The Fine Line Between Sacred and Secular …………………………………...…..109 Chapter 3: Humans in Animal Clothing …………………………………………………….…171 Chapter 4: Hairstyles and Horns: The Battle for Domestic Dominance………………………..237 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………..305 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………………313 ii List of Figures Figure 1.1: The Elements, Seasons, Humors, and Temperaments .…………………………......48 Figure 1.2: Physician Treating a Woman’s Hair ………………………………...…...…………85 Figure 2.1: Saint Mary of Egypt, Book of Hours ……………………………....…...…………119 Figure 2.2: Saint Mary of Egypt ……………………………………………………...………..119 Figure 3.1: Ermine ……………………………………………………...……………………...218 Figure 4.1: Jalous Beats His Wife ………………………………..…………………...………..245 Figure 4.2: Jalous Beats His Wife ………………………………..…………………...………..245 Figure 4.3: Woman with a Little Girl …………………………….…………………...………..248 Figure 4.4: Console with Luxuria (Sensuality)…………………...…………………...………..273 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my director and mentor, Julie Singer, whose seminar my first semester at Washington University in St. Louis introduced me to the hirsute wild man, and whose patience and guidance have been unwavering throughout this entire process. I would also like to thank each member of my dissertation committee: Harriet Stone for her discerning questions and conversation, Seth Graebner, whose comments and critiques have slowly transformed me into a better writer, Tili Boon Cuillé and Jessica Rosenfeld for their insight and willingness to help bring this project to completion. I would like to express my gratitude to the entire Romance Languages Department for their continued support throughout my time at Washington University in St. Louis. I want to thank the staff at the Writing Center, especially Robert Patterson, Steve Pijut, and Ruth Berson whose advice, instruction and encouragement during my Graduate Fellowship helped me develop strategies to become a more productive writer and a better teacher. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues Hélène Martin and Nicole Hohman for holding me accountable to a writing schedule, helping me set realistic goals, and celebrating small victories in our agraphia group. Lastly, I cannot thank my family enough for their support. Thanks to my mom, dad, and sisters for always pushing me to do my best and believing in me when I did not believe in myself. I want to thank my YCC family for helping keep this work in perspective and for their prayers and encouragement. I would not be where I am today without the love and support of my iv husband Justin. Thank you for keeping me grounded, for refusing to let me give up, and for reminding me that our life is always in the here and now. Finally, I must thank God, whose grace has always been sufficient in my weakness. Cassidy Devon Thompson Washington University in St. Louis May 2018 v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Splitting Hairs: The Creation and Dissolution of Boundaries in Thirteenth-Century French Literature by Cassidy Devon Thompson Doctor of Philosophy in French Language and Literature Washington University in St. Louis, 2018 Professor Julie Singer, Chair Medieval authors often blur the boundaries between humans and animals in their works. In “Splitting Hairs: The Creation and Dissolution of Boundaries in Thirteenth-Century French Literature,” I study how medieval authors dehumanize people by inscribing bestial traits onto the human body via hair and hairiness in order to interrogate acts of self-definition, religious practices, social identity, and gender roles. The work examines a wide variety of literary and nonliterary texts of the thirteenth century including encyclopedias, medical treatises, hagiographies, romances, satirical poetry, and fabliaux. I explore how and why authors use the visibility, malleability, and shared human and animal quality of hair to blur boundaries between species. I argue that because hair encodes social meaning such as adherence to religious orders, marital status, or wealth, examining the context under which such manipulations occur will reveal an interrogation of larger socio-cultural questions of religion, social class, and gender. Chapter one studies Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ De proprietatibus rerum and Aldebrandin de Sienne’s Regime du corps to show how medieval intellectuals defined hair in scientific discourse and how it troubled human acts of self-definition. The chapter concludes by illustrating vi how these intellectual concerns surrounding hair question the nature of the protagonists as male or female, human or beast, in Heldris de Cornouaille’s contemporaneous romance the Roman de Silence. The second chapter shows how animal traits can be written on the saint’s body through abnormal hair growth in Rutebeuf’s Marie l’Egyptienne and the anonymous Robert le Diable. The animal presence in these texts creates a devotional space for wild saints which questions whether sacred pursuits are compatible with life in society. Chapter three examines how animal hides blur the boundary between humans and animals in Guillaume de Palerne, and how the transformation of these hides into clothing via human engien, or ingenuity, both reinforces noble identity and sovereignty, and questions the innateness of that identity. Finally, chapter four studies how Jean de Meun’s continuation of the Roman de la Rose, the anonymous Dit des cornetes, and the fabliau Tresces inscribe animal traits onto women’s styled hair to dehumanize them. Poets use this animal discourse either as a justification for male domination of women, or as a means for women to play a more active role in love pursuits, thereby dominating men. This work shows that even a subtle, linguistic animal presence in medieval works can reflect a changing society. By studying how thirteenth-century French authors use hair to impose bestial traits on human characters, this work demonstrates how texts which are sometimes dismissed as frivolous, moralistic, or misogynistic, in fact engage deeply in the broader religious, political, and social discourses of the thirteenth century. vii Introduction The relationship between humans and animals is often ambiguous, especially in literature of the Middle Ages. For many medieval thinkers humans were both linked to the animal kingdom as mammals and part of God’s terrestrial creation, and separated from the beasts as a result of their intellect and some distinct physical features. Medieval intellectuals occasionally defined humans in relation to animals because it can prove easier to define something by referring to what it is not. This act of self-definition usually involved comparing and contrasting human and animal behavior. Humans moved toward or away from animals depending on the desirability of the behavior or quality in question: positive qualities such as self-control and use of logic distanced humans from animals while negative ones such as violence or lust brought them closer together. Thus, certain characteristics remained “human” and positive, while others, usually considered excessive, became more “animal” and negative. Medieval literature often articulated the human/animal relationship in terms of behavior: antagonists indulge in their bestial qualities while the hero is or becomes a model of self-control and moderation. Some authors, however, manipulated this relationship in more literal ways. Humans may find physical animal features inscribed or merged onto their body: a woman’s hair can look like animal horns, clothing can be exchanged for animal hides, and animal fur can cover smooth human flesh.

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