| Summary: | <p>This thesis argues that interpretation of medieval anchoritic literature requires a central analytic focus on prayer, as the primary activity and essential orientation of the recluse. It presents a theoretical framework for understanding prayer as encounter between the person and God, on a continuum with the subject position of the modern reader encountering the ‘other’ of the past author or text. Having introduced anchoritic prayer as a model for transhistorical reading, Chapter One argues that solitude and withdrawal form a crucial unifying discourse in the history of Christian prayer. </p>
<p>The following chapters identify and theorise the intersections of anchoritic identity and prayer practice in a series of textual groupings. Chapter Two discusses instructional texts for anchorites. It argues that, rather than directly theorising prayer, they assume it as the anchorite’s basic daily work, producing holiness from practice as the latter shapes the orant towards conformity to God’s purposes. Chapter Three considers how prayer functions in and through hagiographical texts for and about recluses, identifying a central concern with enclosure as the means to the reader’s desired prayerful encounter.</p>
<p>Chapter Four argues that the aspects of prayer prioritised in the routine found in Part I of Ancrene Wisse lay the foundation for the text’s delineation of anchoritic identity and practice. It similarly analyses the modelling and performance of prayer in the Wooing Group texts, in both cases asserting the inextricability of textual engagement from prayer. Chapter Five analyses <em>Richard Rolle’s Form of Living and English Psalter</em> as works associated with his instruction of another solitary religious, highlighting his emphasis on the full range of prayer, from practical to contemplative. Finally, a coda integrates the key themes of anchoritic prayer delineated in the preceding chapters with an experimental reading of T.S. Eliot’s poetry and drama, reflecting the transtemporal orientation of anchoritic prayer-texts and the polytemporality of reading itself. </p>
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