Table of Contents

Plate

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction:  On Stealing Obedience

1: Dunstan in the Theatre of Choice

2: ‘Esto quod es’: Ælfric’s Colloquy and the Imperatives of Monastic Identity

3: Edith’s Choice

4: Leaving Wilton: Gunhild and the Phantoms of Agency

5: The Silence of Eve

Afterword

Bibliography

Index

Promotional Information

'A compelling and compassionate account of agency and identity in late Anglo-Saxon England. Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe's deep learning, theoretical acumen, and elegant prose are evident at every turn as she illuminates the tantalizing paradox of how obedience and service to others might prove the ultimate path to human freedom. Stealing Obedience is groundbreaking scholarship and will be the definitive work on this subject for the foreseeable future.' -- Stacy S. Klein, Rutgers University

About the Author

Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe is a professor in the Department of English and the director of the Medieval Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

‘Imaginative and sophisticated monograph…  Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe must be warmly congratulated on her fine accomplishment, which will be useful to scholars interested in English monastic life and obedience on either side of the Norman Conquest.’
*Speculum vol 90:01:2015*

‘Solid cultural and historical grounding, artfully framed by appropriate theoretical models, characterize this study… Highly recommended’
*Choice Magazine; vol 50:04:2012*

‘Stealing Obedience is a fresh look at a body of narrative sources which have only rarely been theorized and troubled so effectively.’
*Comitatus vol 44: September 2013*

‘A pleasure to read…Speaks to a range of disciplinary interests, and deserves attention as an authoritative contribution to debates about identity and selfhood in Middle Ages.’
*Modern Language Review vol 108:04:2013*