Female Corporeal Performances: Reading the Body in Byzantine Passions And Lives of Holy Women (ACTA Universitatis Upsaliensis Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia, 9) - Softcover

Constantinou, Stavroula

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9155462928 ISBN 13: 9789155462925

Publisher: Uppsala Universitet, 2005

Synopsis

This study argues that the religious acts and behavior depicted in Byzantine hagiography can be seen as performances. The martyr, the monk/nun, the patriarch and the cross-dresser, for instance, are roles undertaken by the heroes and heroines of Byzantine hagiography in order to serve God and achieve sanctity.

In this study, the most important roles of female sanctity are approached as depicted in Passions and Lives of holy women through investigating the heroines' bodies which play a vital role in the performance of religious behavior and the construction of sanctity.

The study thus exploits performance theory which suggests that daily life consists of various and repeated performances including particular embodied acts realized in specific places and witnessed by others and/or the watching self. Here such performances are observed and examined in the roles of the martyr, the penitent, the cross-dresser, the nun, the abbess and the pious wife.

Edition details

• Publisher: Uppsala Universitet
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9155462928
• ISBN 13: 9789155462925
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 225