Passing Phases of Pilgrimage. Rite de Passage as a Literary Device in Twelfth Century English Pilgrimage Stories.

Abstract

Anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner discovered the phenomenon of medieval pilgrimage as a rite de passage. Criticism on their model followed, but at the beginning of the current century historian Anne Bailey stated that she found a way to work around this critique. According to her a rite de passage is present in the text in the form of a literary device. Seeing if this theory by Anne Bailey holds up and if so in what way the concept of rite the passage functions as a literary device in twelfth century pilgrimage stories is the goal of this thesis. This is done by an analysis of four hagiographical texts. With the results following this analysis a look is taken at how this can offer us a better insight in narrative strategies, England’s twelfth century and hagiography as a genre itself.