The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies

Gender, Asceticism, and Historiography

Author: Martin, Dale B.; Miller, Patricia Cox; Rousseau, Philip; Tilley, Maureen A.; Harvey, Susan Ashbrook
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822334118
eISBN Pdf: 9780822386681
Place of publication: Durham , United States
Year of digital publication: 2005
Month: April
Pages: 376
DDC: 270.2
Language: English

Caption

The essays in this provocative collection exemplify the innovations that have characterized the relatively new field of late ancient studies. Focused on civilizations clustered mainly around the Mediterranean and covering the period between roughly 100 and 700 CE, scholars in this field have brought history and cultural studies to bear on theology and religious studies. They have adopted the methods of the social sciences and humanities—particularly those of sociology, cultural anthropology, and literary criticism. By emphasizing cultural and social history and considerations of gender and sexuality, scholars of late antiquity have revealed the late ancient world as far more varied than had previously been imagined.

The contributors investigate three key concerns of late ancient studies: gender, asceticism, and historiography. They consider Macrina’s scar, Mary’s voice, and the harlot’s body as well as Augustine, Jovinian, Gregory of Nazianzus, Julian, and Ephrem the Syrian. Whether examining how animal bodies figured as a means for understanding human passion and sexuality in the monastic communities of Egypt and Palestine or meditating on the almost modern epistemological crisis faced by Theodoret in attempting to overcome the barriers between the self and the wider world, these essays highlight emerging theoretical and critical developments in the field.

Contributors. Daniel Boyarin, David Brakke, Virginia Burrus, Averil Cameron, Susanna Elm, James E. Goehring, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, David G. Hunter, Blake Leyerle, Dale B. Martin, Patricia Cox Miller, Philip Rousseau, Teresa M. Shaw, Maureen A. Tilley, Dennis E. Trout, Mark Vessey

Contents
Acknowledgments
Dale B. Martin Introduction 1
Gender
- David Brakke The Lady Appears: Materializationsof ‘‘Woman’’ in Early Monastic Literature
- Maureen A. Tilley No Friendly Letters: Augustine’s Correspondence with Women
- Susan Ashbrook Harvey On Mary’s Voice: Gendered Words in Syriac Marian Tradition
- Patricia Cox Miller Is There a Harlot in This Text?: Hagiography and the Grotesque
- Virginia Burrus Macrina’s Tattoo
Asceticism
- David G. Hunter Rereading the Jovinianist Controversy: Asceticism and Clerical Authority in LateAncient Christianity
- James E. Goehring The Dark Side of Landscape:Ideology and Power in the Christian Myth of theDesert
- Blake Leyerle Monks and Other Animals
Historiography
- Daniel Boyarin Archives in the Fiction: Rabbinic Historiography and Church History
- Averil Cameron How to Read Heresiology
- Teresa M. Shaw Ascetic Practice and the Genealogy of Heresy: Problems in ModernScholarship and Ancient Textual Representation
- Mark Vessey History, Fiction, and Figuralism in Book 8 of Augustine’s Confessions
- Susanna Elm Hellenism and Historiography: Gregory of Nazianzus and Julian in Dialogue
- Philip Rousseau Knowing Theodoret: Text and Self
- Dennis E. Trout Damasus and the Invention of Early Christian Rome
Bibliography
Contributors
Index of Modern Authors
Index of Citations to Ancient Authorsand Scriptures