Constructions of Feminine Identity in the Catholic Tradition: Inventing Women (Studies in Medieval Literature)

Constructions of Feminine Identity in the Catholic Tradition examines the ways in which late classical medieval women’s writings serve as a means of emphasizing both faith and social identity within a distinctly Christian, and later Catholic, tradition, which remains a major part of the understanding of faith and the self. Flavin focuses on key texts from the lives of desert saints and the Passio Perpetua to the autobiographies of Counter-Reformation women like Teresa of Ávila to illustrate the connections between the self and the divine.

Christopher M. Flavin is department chair and professor in the Department of Languages and Literature at Northeastern State University.