| This study focuses on the legend of St Mary the Egyptian from Spanish literary sources from the Early Middle Ages to the Golden Age. Dating from the 6th century in Greece, this legend has had an immense and enduring popularity, which is manifested by hundreds of existing manuscripts of the Greek version and its Latin translation, as well as numerous vernacular versions in Old Spanish, Old French, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Old English, etc. This abundance of testimonies allows us to examine the diverse transformations that this legend has undergone as a cultural artifact. The purpose of this dissertation is precisely to evaluate the different processes of production, reception and function of the different versions of the legend, which despite the common story narrated in their written testimonies, manifest dissimilar contents and intentions.; A close examination of the legend's narrative materials reveals that each story is manipulated and constituted following certain narratological patterns that respond to concrete historical, ideological and dogmatic trends in force by the time these stories were set down in written form. As I explain in chapter 1, basically there are two main patterns of narrative versions: Eastern and Western. I show how the legend developed from a text of the Eastern version that was limited to monastic environment during the Early Middle Ages. With the emergence of the preachers and mendicant orders in the 13 th century, the legend of Mary the Egyptian broadened its audience to include a more diverse population, especially lay women. As a result, the transmission of the legend evolved from a written text intended for private reading to the Western version, a poetic text designed for recitation and oral performance. This progression of the text from written narrative to performance piece was finally achieved during the 17th century, when the legend of St Mary of Egypt became a dramatic play, La gitana de Menfis , attributed to Juan Pérez de Montalbán around 1625. To explain the relationships between the inner organization of the legend material and the ideological environment that produces and consumes it, this study has been divided into three major sections of analysis: (1) the process that originates the Eastern model (chapter 2); (2) the process that originates the Western model (chapter 3); and (3) the process constituted by the writing of the dramatic play (chapter 4).; As a careful examination of these relationships, it is possible to conclude that the constitution of both the narrative organization of the legendary material and the significance of its content served throughout the centuries as a powerful tool of ideological propaganda. Specifically, the legend in its various incarnations was used for the transmission of religious dogmas and principles by which the official discourse of the Church controlled its followers, especially in times of heresy or dogmatic dissent. |
