Browse -
Information -
Catalogue of Titles -
Submission of Manuscripts -
Spirituality and Politics in the Works of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
Stephen L. Wailes
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim is simultaneously a much-discussed and seriously underread author. Some of her works, like Agape, Chionia, and Hirena and Pelagius, have made their way into undergraduate surveys of medieval literature, while others, like the Gesta Ottonis and the Primordia coenobii Gandeshemensis remain largely unread even by scholars. Stephen L. Wailes's book aims to remedy this imbalance by considering all of Hrotsvit's work in the context of the Ottonian political and religious milieu that generated it.
Wailes treats Hrotsvit's texts in chronological order, beginning with the stories, then treating the dramas, and finally the histories. He provides a paraphrase of each work and highlights emerging themes both within individual texts and across groups of texts. Gongolf, Pelagius, and Dionysius appear as concerned with issues of (relatively) recent history invested with particular relevance to the Ottonian dynasty, while the problem of tristitia resonates across Basilius, Drusiana and Calimachus, and Mary. Wailes is particularly concerned to demonstrate what he calls "Hrotsvit's narrative esthetic-the exploitation of episodic structure for the sake of multiple meanings . . . as well as the discovery of multiple meanings in a single narrative" (p. 109). Thus, to cite two of the most persuasive chapters, Mary emerges from his reading as a play concerned not only with a young woman's vulnerability to sexual temptation but also with the failure of an elderly male spiritual director to educate his charge effectively, while Drusiana reveals a woman's deep-seated anxiety about her own sexuality. The final chapters, on the Gesta Ottonis and the Primordia, suggest that these two works read together constitute a veiled criticism of Otto I, particularly in regard to his fractious relations with the papacy; this is eminently reasonable, given that the uses and abuses of power by rulers are one of the recurrent themes of Hrotsvit's earlier works.
Wailes's treatment of other texts is less persuasive. It is a pity that, in his determination to argue that Hrotsvit's oeuvre is not simply dedicated to an exaltation of virginity (which is true), he is inclined to set up straw men in order to knock them down. I cannot think of a single writer on virginity, medieval or modern, who has failed to realize that "a sexually pure woman does not merit on that basis alone being called the spouse of the Eternal King" (p. 114). Augustine and Hildegard of Bingen both made this point in different ways, and recent scholarship on virginity (by the likes of Kate Cooper, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Kathleen Kelly, and Sarah Salih, none of whom appear in the bibliography) makes a much more subtle point than Wailes assumes: because women were so consistently associated with the flesh, bodily virginity, or at the very least chastity, was a prerequisite for spiritual purity for them in a way that it was not for men. This is particularly true in the case of virgin martyrs; Agnes, Agape, and the rest may claim that it does not matter what happens to their bodies because their true virginity is spiritual, but the claim is never put to the test, their bodies remaining sexually inviolate (both in Hrotsvit's texts and in her sources). The complex connection between sexual status and martyrdom for women cannot simply be dismissed, especially when it is such a hallmark of the tradition Hrotsvit inherited, from Prudentius's Peristephanon (which Wailes discusses, briefly) to Aldhelm's Carmen de virginitate (which he does not). Neither of those authors suggests that virginity is more meritorious than martyrdom, nor do they claim that physical virginity is sufficient to sanctity; but both establish paradigms according to which the existence of sanctity and martyrdom in nonvirgin female bodies is, to say the least, unusual. The link between virginity and martyrdom was as tight as ever in the tenth century-Wailes gives the example of "the holy woman Wiborada . . . martyred in her cell at St. Gall by pagan Magyars" (p. 121) as a martyrdom with which Hrotsvit would have been familiar, but he relegates to the notes the fact that Wiborada was revered precisely as a virgin martyr, not a martyr tout court. Wailes's ready recourse to the authority of Augustine and Paul is also troubling because he admits of no ambiguity in their attitudes or in Hrotsvit's debt to them. In actuality, Pauline teachings on body, flesh, and spirit are deeply vexed, as are Augustine's meditations on the (potential) survival of sanctity after the rape of holy women in the beginning of The City of God, or indeed on the relationship between the earthly and heavenly cities.
Some readers may be disappointed by Wailes's tendency to dismiss or ignore recent criticism on Hrotsvit (and Paul and Augustine) rather than engage with it. Others may regret the lack of attention to Hrotsvit's prosody; one would never guess from this book that she was capable of achieving extraordinary poetic effects through her manipulation of the hexameter and the rhythmic dialogue of the plays. It may, however, be valuable to some to have Hrotsvit placed in a detailed historical context. Simply because it treats all of her works systematically, this book is a useful addition to Hrotsvit studies.
Wailes treats Hrotsvit's texts in chronological order, beginning with the stories, then treating the dramas, and finally the histories. He provides a paraphrase of each work and highlights emerging themes both within individual texts and across groups of texts. Gongolf, Pelagius, and Dionysius appear as concerned with issues of (relatively) recent history invested with particular relevance to the Ottonian dynasty, while the problem of tristitia resonates across Basilius, Drusiana and Calimachus, and Mary. Wailes is particularly concerned to demonstrate what he calls "Hrotsvit's narrative esthetic-the exploitation of episodic structure for the sake of multiple meanings . . . as well as the discovery of multiple meanings in a single narrative" (p. 109). Thus, to cite two of the most persuasive chapters, Mary emerges from his reading as a play concerned not only with a young woman's vulnerability to sexual temptation but also with the failure of an elderly male spiritual director to educate his charge effectively, while Drusiana reveals a woman's deep-seated anxiety about her own sexuality. The final chapters, on the Gesta Ottonis and the Primordia, suggest that these two works read together constitute a veiled criticism of Otto I, particularly in regard to his fractious relations with the papacy; this is eminently reasonable, given that the uses and abuses of power by rulers are one of the recurrent themes of Hrotsvit's earlier works.
Wailes's treatment of other texts is less persuasive. It is a pity that, in his determination to argue that Hrotsvit's oeuvre is not simply dedicated to an exaltation of virginity (which is true), he is inclined to set up straw men in order to knock them down. I cannot think of a single writer on virginity, medieval or modern, who has failed to realize that "a sexually pure woman does not merit on that basis alone being called the spouse of the Eternal King" (p. 114). Augustine and Hildegard of Bingen both made this point in different ways, and recent scholarship on virginity (by the likes of Kate Cooper, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Kathleen Kelly, and Sarah Salih, none of whom appear in the bibliography) makes a much more subtle point than Wailes assumes: because women were so consistently associated with the flesh, bodily virginity, or at the very least chastity, was a prerequisite for spiritual purity for them in a way that it was not for men. This is particularly true in the case of virgin martyrs; Agnes, Agape, and the rest may claim that it does not matter what happens to their bodies because their true virginity is spiritual, but the claim is never put to the test, their bodies remaining sexually inviolate (both in Hrotsvit's texts and in her sources). The complex connection between sexual status and martyrdom for women cannot simply be dismissed, especially when it is such a hallmark of the tradition Hrotsvit inherited, from Prudentius's Peristephanon (which Wailes discusses, briefly) to Aldhelm's Carmen de virginitate (which he does not). Neither of those authors suggests that virginity is more meritorious than martyrdom, nor do they claim that physical virginity is sufficient to sanctity; but both establish paradigms according to which the existence of sanctity and martyrdom in nonvirgin female bodies is, to say the least, unusual. The link between virginity and martyrdom was as tight as ever in the tenth century-Wailes gives the example of "the holy woman Wiborada . . . martyred in her cell at St. Gall by pagan Magyars" (p. 121) as a martyrdom with which Hrotsvit would have been familiar, but he relegates to the notes the fact that Wiborada was revered precisely as a virgin martyr, not a martyr tout court. Wailes's ready recourse to the authority of Augustine and Paul is also troubling because he admits of no ambiguity in their attitudes or in Hrotsvit's debt to them. In actuality, Pauline teachings on body, flesh, and spirit are deeply vexed, as are Augustine's meditations on the (potential) survival of sanctity after the rape of holy women in the beginning of The City of God, or indeed on the relationship between the earthly and heavenly cities.
Some readers may be disappointed by Wailes's tendency to dismiss or ignore recent criticism on Hrotsvit (and Paul and Augustine) rather than engage with it. Others may regret the lack of attention to Hrotsvit's prosody; one would never guess from this book that she was capable of achieving extraordinary poetic effects through her manipulation of the hexameter and the rhythmic dialogue of the plays. It may, however, be valuable to some to have Hrotsvit placed in a detailed historical context. Simply because it treats all of her works systematically, this book is a useful addition to Hrotsvit studies.
MAUD BURNETT MCINERNEY, Haverford College <Top>
Last Reviewed on 11/24/2008 by Nabin Mulepati | SU Press (570)372-4175/fax (570)372-4021 | Email: SUPress | Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA 17870