Eloquent Virgins From Thecla to Joan of Arc

by McInerney, Maud Burnett

• ISBN13: 9780312223502
• ISBN10: 0312223501
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-06
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The tales of the virgin martyrs typically emphasize the torture and mutilation of beautiful young women. To the modern reader, these medieval texts seem like exercises in sadism, but they also provided Medieval women such as Hildegard of Bingen and Joan of Arc with role models who helped them to shape their own extraordinary destinies. This book explores the ability of the virgin body to generate contradictory meanings, both repressive and liberating, depending on who told the tale and how it was told.

Author Biography

Maud Burnett McInerney teaches English and Medieval Studies at Haverford College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction Genuine Devotion, Imaginary Bodies	1	(14)
Strange Triangle: Tertullian, Perpetua, Thecla	15	(32)
Androgynous Virgins and the Threat of Rape in the Fourth Century	47	(38)
From the Sublime to the Ridiculous in the Works of Hrotsvitha	85	(26)
A Chorus of Virgins: Hildegard's Symphonia	111	(32)
Pelagius, Rupert, and the Problem of Male Virginity in Hrotsvitha and Hildegard	143	(22)
Catherine and Margaret: Vernacular Virgins and the Golden Legend	165	(30)
Epilogue Joan of Arc	195	(18)
Notes	213	(34)
Index	247