Animality, Subjectivity, and Society in Anglo-Saxon England
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by eCommons@Cornell IDENTIFYING WITH THE BEAST: ANIMALITY, SUBJECTIVITY, AND SOCIETY IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of English Language and Literature by Matthew E. Spears January 2017 © 2017 Matthew E. Spears IDENTIFYING WITH THE BEAST: ANIMALITY, SUBJECTIVITY, AND SOCIETY IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND Matthew E. Spears, Ph.D. Cornell University, 2017 My dissertation reconsiders the formation of subjectivity in Anglo-Saxon England. It argues that the Anglo-Saxons used crossings of the human-animal divide to construct the subject and the performance of a social role. While the Anglo-Saxons defined the “human” as a form of life distinct from and superior to all other earthly creatures, they also considered most humans to be subjects-in-process, flawed, sinful beings in constant need of attention. The most exceptional humans had to be taught to interact with animals in ways that guarded the self and the community against sin, but the most loathsome acted like beasts in ways that endangered society. This blurring of the human-animal divide was therefore taxonomic, a move to naturalize human difference, elevate some members of society while excluding others from the community, and police the unruly and transgressive body. The discourse of species allowed Anglo-Saxon thinkers to depict these moves as inscribed into the workings of the natural world, ordained by the perfect design of God rather than a product of human artifice and thus fallible. “Identifying with the Beast” is informed by posthumanist theories of identity, which reject traditional notions of a unified, autonomous self and instead view subjectivity as fluid and creative, produced in the interaction of humans, animals, objects, and the environment. My dissertation is divided into four chapters, each looking at a figure in Anglo-Saxon society (the teacher, the warrior, the sovereign, and the saint) and its construction through the discourse of species. In my first chapter, I analyze the three poems of the Old English Physiologus, which align the teacher’s ability to influence an audience and create the Christian community with animals’ ability to attract other beings with pleasant sounds and smells. The second chapter examines the roles of animals in Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry. I argue this genre utilizes animality to imagine the capabilities of the extraordinary warrior body but also to depict animals being “outanimaled” and reify human superiority. Chapter Three, through a reading of legal texts and the poem Elene, shows how Anglo- Saxon sovereignty was allied with the hawk and horse. This worked to establish the Anglo-Saxon sovereign as a continuation of Germanic and Roman forms of kingship as well as emphasize the ruler’s ability to project his power over large expanses of space. The final chapter looks at the cult of the dogheaded Saint Christopher, seeing its popularity in Anglo-Saxon England as the product of a syncretic belief in the supernatural power of sacrificial, protective canine. Further, it argues the Anglo-Saxons imagined Christopher’s overcoming of animality and emergence as a missionary to parallel their own history as a once-bestial folk brought into Christendom and responsible for using their newfound humanity to evangelize those non-Christians proximate to them. “Identifying with the Beast” thus challenges previous work that maintains the human-animal distinction began to erode in the twelfth century, pointing out instead that this supposed divide has always been permeable. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Matthew (Matt) E. Spears was born in Seattle, Washington, but grew up in northern San Diego, California, surrounded by cars and coyotes. He received his B.A. in Literature and Writing Studies from California State University San Marcos in 2006 and his Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Cornell University in January 2017. His research interests include Old and Middle English literature, Old Norse-Icelandic literature, ecocriticism, posthumanism, and contemporary American popular culture. iii For Mom iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During my time at Cornell, I have been fortunate to be part of a community of brilliant and kind people. I owe the completion of this project to them. The three members of my Special Committee have been equal parts helpful, inspiring, and patient despite my best attempts to infuriate them. Samantha Zacher, the co-chair, was the first to bring it to my attention that my interest in Saint Christopher could be channeled into a larger project regarding the animal in Anglo-Saxon England. Without that insight, none of what follows would be possible. Thank you for your guidance and for showing me the kind of work ethic a serious scholar in our field should have. Tom Hill, my other co-chair, is one of the most encouraging and generous scholars (not to mention human beings) I have ever known. I have not only learned from you what it means to be a great mentor but also a great friend. Last and never least, Andy Galloway’s warmth and enthusiasm for medieval literature are incredible. The voice I hear in my head when reading Middle English will always be his, falsetto and all. I also owe a great debt to my grad student colleagues. Going chronologically, Ben Weber and Danielle (“Margie”) Ruether-Wu have been two of my best friends ever since we took Introduction to Old English together in Fall 2006. I am grateful for all the fun times we have enjoyed together over the last 10 years (and I look forward to many more). Katie Destiny Compton has made me laugh more than any other person I know, and she has always been there when I needed someone to rant and rave to or had an idea (and has v successfully prevented many of my worst plans). Rae Grabowski and Marybeth Ruether- Wu have been generous not only with their friendship and insight but with their equally brilliant baked goods. I am thankful for the conversations about American popular culture I have had lately with Dan’o Reid (even if we disagree on Frank Miller’s genius). To the unsung heroes, thanks to Darlene Flint, Michele Manella, and Marianne Marsh in the English Department office for putting up with me all these years. Thanks also to Dianne Ferris in Medieval Studies, who was always helpful with getting the word out about guest lectures and reading groups and who introduced me to Mike Abrams, whose love of learning and friendship will always inspire me. I will never forget the two wonderful years I spent at Alice Cook House on Cornell’s West Campus and the generosity shown to me by Martha Benninger and the Dhondts. My interests in body studies and animal studies were born in classes I took at Cal State with Martha Stoddard-Holmes and Lance Newman, respectively, and I in large part get my teaching skills from observing them in action. I also owe a great deal to Heather Hayton, who instilled in me a passion for medieval literature, and later Pat Price, who was so giving with her time and energy. Thanks to you all. Finally, my Mom always had faith in me and believed in what I was doing. She did the best job she could raising me, and it is from her I get my love of learning. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch iii Acknowledgements v Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Teaching Animal 38 Chapter Two: The Warrior Animal 88 Chapter Three: The Sovereign Animal 142 Chapter Four: The Saintly Animal 185 Conclusion: Never Modern, But Always Posthuman? 229 Works Cited 234 vii INTRODUCTION Gildas was not a happy fellow. Writing his De excidio Britonum (“The Ruin of Britain,” hereafter abbreviated DEB) sometime between 480 and 550 CE, he told the story of how his society was in moral and political collapse.1 The kings who were supposed to protect their subjects had become more interested in enriching themselves and their cohorts, and those rulers who showed actual concern for the people were murdered. The church was negligent as well, its representatives seeking earthly delights rather than the salvation of the laity. The more the inhabitants of Britain sinned, the sicker they all became in soul and body, vulnerable to attack by conquerors from outside their land. With the leadership not performing its duties and the Roman occupiers having left the island, God would directly intervene in an attempt to save the British, but the Maker’s call for repentance and warning that enemies were fast approaching went ignored.2 Desperate, a king, unnamed by Gildas but identified by later chroniclers as Vortigern, invited Germanic mercenaries to fight off the invading Scots and Picts.3 It was a move soon regretted when these hired swords, the Saxons, turned 1 For a breakdown of the different datings of the DEB, see Christopher A. Snyder, The Britons (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), 123 (Table 6.3). More recently, Karen George has proposed a date between 510 and 530 based on the birth date that Gildas provides for himself: forty-three years and a month after the defeat of the Saxons by Ambrosius. Karen George, Gildas’s De Excidio Britonum and the Early British Church (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2009), 2-4. 2 DEB 22.1. The edition and translation of the DEB used here is from The Ruin of Britain and Other Works, rev. ed., ed. and trans. Michael Winterbottom (Chichester, West Sussex: Phillimore, 2002). Textual references to the DEB are from that edition’s numbering of chapters and sections.