Dr Niamh Kehoe PhD

Research Overview

My main research interest lies in the hagiography produced in medieval England from c. 700-1300. My research to date has focused on identifying humour in vernacular saints' lives dated from c. 900-1300, tracing its changing use across the arbitrary '1066' divide. My aim in doing so has been twofold: firstly, to explore how humour was used in saints' lives and to what effect, and secondly to use writers' use of humour as a litmus test to gauge changing presentations of, and engagements with, the idea of the holy and holy behaviour.

Building on this research, I am also interested in morality in hagiography, particularly the idea that saints' lives provided models of exemplary behaviour, and how this was mediated by hagiographers for their audience: this research engages with the fundamental question of what the purpose of hagiographic narratives was. The texts I am interested in are Latin, Old English, and Anlgo-Latin texts produced and circulating throughout Early England (c. 700-1100).