Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Following the Traces: Reassessing the Status Quo, Reinscribing Trans and Genderqueer Realities
- Peripheral Vision(s): Objects, Images, and Identities
- Genre, Gender, and Trans Textualities
- Epilogue: Beyond Binaries: A Reflection on the (Trans) Gender(s) of Saints
- Appendix: Trans and Genderqueer Studies Terminology, Language, and Usage Guide
- Index
6 - Illuminating Queer Gender Identity in the Manuscripts of the Vie de sainte Eufrosine
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Following the Traces: Reassessing the Status Quo, Reinscribing Trans and Genderqueer Realities
- Peripheral Vision(s): Objects, Images, and Identities
- Genre, Gender, and Trans Textualities
- Epilogue: Beyond Binaries: A Reflection on the (Trans) Gender(s) of Saints
- Appendix: Trans and Genderqueer Studies Terminology, Language, and Usage Guide
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter analyses the visual representations of the Vie de sainte Eufrosine in three fourteenth-century Parisian manuscripts. It questions how two medieval artists, the Maubeuge Master and the Fauvel Master, approached illustrating the text's protagonist St Eufrosine/Esmarade, a figure assigned female at birth who lives most of their life as a eunuch in a monastic community. This chapter examines the artists’ depiction of St Eufrosine/Esmarade in three manuscript miniatures, comparing how the artists used signifiers of gender and identity in their portrayals of the saint and other figures to reveal the extent to which the artists represented the saint's queer gender visually.
Keywords: genderqueer, Vie de sainte Eufrosine, manuscript illuminations, eunuch, Old French literature, medieval dress
The Vie de sainte Eufrosine is a thirteenth-century French verse hagiography of the saint whose preferred name was Esmarade. Composed around 1200, this Life introduces an individual whose gender identity does not conform to a binary model. Esmarade's queer gender is inextricably linked to their devotion to God as they leave secular society for a monastery in which they spend the rest of their life living as a eunuch. In their accompanying illuminations, the manuscripts of this Life offer hitherto relatively unexamined visual representations of the saint and their gender expression. This chapter considers Esmarade as a genderqueer saint, since they express an identity that does not fit into a binary understanding of gender. Unlike other similar texts, Esmarade does not make an explicit statement outlining their identified gender, and the gendered language used by both protagonist and narrator is inconsistent. However, the saint does present themself to others as a eunuch. This could be seen as a way for them to articulate a non-binary, genderqueer identity. Consequently, this chapter uses they/ them pronouns and the saint's preferred name, Esmarade, to recognize the saint's expression(s) of gender.
The Life of Eufrosine/Esmarade tells the story of a saint assigned female at birth who does not wish to marry the partner chosen by their father, preferring to retain their virginity. After a brief stay at a monastery with their father Pasnutius, they realize they wish to enter the religious life.
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- Information
- Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography , pp. 155 - 176Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021