Unspeakable pleasures: Black flesh in the Old English Life of Saint Mary of Egypt

This article reconsiders the matter of race in the Old English Life of Saint Mary of Egypt . The remarkable representation of Mary the Egyptian in this eleventh-century account, I argue, demonstrates the pains and pleasures of racialization shown in the critical work of Hortense Spillers and Jennifer C. Nash. Drawing on key debates in Black feminism and premodern critical race studies, this article emphasizes the enduring patterns in the production of racial-sexual difference, and how we can creatively work across archives to imagine the radical possibilities of Black and Brown fleshiness.