Representations of Female Sainthood and Voluntary Death in Margaret Cavendish's "The She-Anchoret" (1656)

This paper investigates the representations of female sainthood and voluntary death in "The She-Anchoret", relating the text to the traces of "Baroque Catholicism" found in Margaret Cavendish's literary works. Cavendish was clearly aware of Catholic feminine culture in the English and Continental elite circles, and its significance as an expressive way to manifest religious, political, and gender controversies. As this paper will demonstrate, she tends to be selective when drawing upon Catholic resources, focusing on the splendour of Baroque-Catholic aesthetics and female heroism rather than spirituality. Her treatment of suicide reveals the rich and complex nature of her writings, which refer to a wider cultural background of heroism and the Renaissance discourses of honour. My reading of the text will be based on narratives and artworks addressing saintly, virtuous and heroic women. Their legends present a striking image of passionate virgins dying voluntarily to glorify God. Such images, I argue, register a unique mode of aesthetics that appealed to Cavendish and other female authors. I shall compare "The She-Anchoret" with the verbal and visual texts of female sainthood and martyrdom. In so doing I hope to explore how Cavendish manipulated the imagery of virginity and death to redefine female virtues. ? 2011 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.