M.C.
Bodden
Associate Professor
My
work centers on Medieval literature, with a leaning towards Early
Modern English literature. I am very much engaged by the rich
readings that result when the literature of the past is read through
the lens of contemporary theories. For example, for the Middle
Ages, 'truth' was never contingent; nevertheless the 'truth' of
gender identification can be seen in medieval texts to be wickedly
and comically negotiated. Perception, too, 'fixed' by Aquinas
and Dante, proves to be shaped, rather, by institutional discourses,
and can vary from community to community and period to period.
Even meaning itself is constituted not by timeless truth but by
language- itself a system of elusive and "excessive signification."
As my interests have evolved, so, too, have
my courses, which now take a theme-based approach rather than
a chronological one, an approach which seems to elicit the best
from my students. Courses which I have developed in the last six
years include: "The Theft of Language"
(which looked at languages of public discourse across the centuries
to discover where women were, and were not, able to appropriate
and transform the language of the dominant discourse), "Unruly
Women in Middle English Literature," "The Endangered
Male and Plotting Women in the Middle Ages," "Language,
Gender, and Power," "Women, Money, and Power in Medieval
and Early Modern England," and "'Bad' Girls, 'Bad' Women
in Medieval and Early Modern England."
My evolving
interests are reflected, likewise in my research. From my first
book, The Old English Finding of the True Cross, I have
crossed disciplines and eras in my book-in-progress, tentatively
titled, Speaking as a Woman: Language as the Site of Revolt.
There I show how medieval and early modern English women and women
characters use certain linguistic strategies to de-'essentialize'
the link between gendered practices and identity, allowing them
to assert a 'feminist' discourse that countered prevailing ideologies.
In progress, too, is a third book, Religious
Language: Privileging Violence towards Women, in which I
examine the ways in which the discourse of worship, religious
treatises, homilies and liturgies promotes the oppression and
abuse of women and children.
Teaching Fields
- English Linguistics
- Medieval Literature
- Women's Studies
Office
Location & Contact
Office
Hours
- SPRING 2008
Thursday - 2:00-4:00
Friday - 1:30-4:30
Teaching
Schedule
- SPRING 2008
- 044/1001 MW 1:00-2:15
- 115/1001 MW 5:45-7:00 pm
- 205/1001 MW 2:25-3:40
Research Interests
- English Linguistics
- Women in Medieval Literature
Selected Publications
-
The Old English Finding of the True Cross. Suffolk, Eng.: Boydell and Brewer Ltd., 1987. Edition, with linguistic and literary analysis of 11th-century Old English text of the Finding of the True Cross.
-
"Evidence for the Knowledge of Greek in Anglo-Saxon England." Anglo-Saxon England. 17 (1990) 217-246.
-
“The Imagined Woman,” Image Makers and Image Breakers in the Middle Ages. Ed. J. Goering and Francesco Guilliano. Toronto Series, Vol. 6 (2004)
-
"'I grab the microphone and move my body:' Volatile Speech, Volatile Bodies and the Church's Attempt to Measure Holiness." The Catholic Church and Unruly Women Writers: Critical Essays. Ed Jeana DelRosso, Leigh Eicke, and Ana Kothe. Palgrave Press, 2007.
-
"'Tak al my good [wealth] and lat my body go': Medieval Woman, Money
and Power.” Women, Money and Power. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Palgrave Press, 2008.
Honors/Awards
-
British Fulbright Research Award
-
National Endowment for the Humanities Award
-
Summer Faculty Fellowship Award
- Invited: Fellow of the Departments of Anglo-Saxon Studies and Classics
- Faculty Development Award, Marquette University, 2007
