The sex lives of saints : an erotics of ancient hagiography / Virginia Burrus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burrus, Virginia, author.

Series:

Divinations.

Divinations : rereading late ancient religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines.

Sex.

Christian hagiography--History--To 1500.

Christian hagiography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 216 pages)

Edition:

First paperback edition

Other Title:

Erotics of ancient hagiography

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pa. : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Has a repressive morality been the primary contribution of Christianity to the history of sexuality? The ascetic concerns that pervade ancient Christian texts would seem to support such a common assumption. Focusing on hagiographical literature, Virginia Burrus pursues a fresh path of interpretation, arguing that the early accounts of the lives of saints are not antierotic but rather convey a sublimely transgressive "countereroticism" that resists the marital, procreative ethic of sexuality found in other strands of Christian tradition.Without reducing the erotics of ancient hagiography to a single formula, The Sex Lives of Saints frames the broad historical, theological, and theoretical issues at stake in such a revisionist interpretation of ascetic eroticism, with particular reference to the work of Michel Foucault and Georges Bataille, David Halperin and Geoffrey Harpham, Leo Bersani and Jean Baudrillard. Burrus subsequently proceeds through close, performative readings of the earliest Lives of Saints, mostly dating to the late fourth and early fifth centuries-Jerome's Lives of Paul, Malchus, Hilarion, and Paula; Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina; Augustine's portrait of Monica; Sulpicius Severus's Life of Martin; and the slightly later Lives of so-called harlot saints. Queer, s/m, and postcolonial theories are among the contemporary discourses that prove intriguingly resonant with an ancient art of "saintly" loving that remains, in Burrus's reading, promisingly mobile, diverse, and open-ended.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: Hagiography and the History of Sexuality

Chapter 1. Fancying Hermits: Sublimation and the Arts of Romance

Chapter 2. Dying for a Life: Martyrdom, Masochism, and Female (Auto)Biography

Chapter 3. Hybrid Desire: Empire, Sadism, and the Soldier Saint

Chapter 4. Secrets of Seduction: The Lives of Holy Harlots

Postscript (Catching My Breath)

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-208) and index.

ISBN:

9786613211194

9781283211192

128321119X

9780812200720

0812200721

OCLC:

759158154