Separating the Saints from the Boys: Sainthood and Masculinity in the Old French Vie de Saint Alexis

What is it about?

Focusing on the Old French 'Vie de Saint Alexis', this article considers how the analysis of medieval saints' lives might contribute to current discussions of gender and identity in literary texts. It uses anthropological theories of the gift and its relationship to gender to explore how the masculinity of the saint is construed in relation to networks of terrestrial and divine exchange, pointing to the productive tension between these two types of exchange in the text. Following discussion of the construction of the saint's masculinity, I argue that viewing gender as part of networks of exchange (rather than as a category viewed independently of such networks) might modify the way gender is discussed in medieval (and non-medieval) literature.

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