{"product_id":"the-sex-lives-of-saints-an-erotics-of-ancient-hagiography-paperback-softback-9780812220209","title":"The Sex Lives of Saints; An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography (Paperback \/ softback) 9780812220209","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Sex Lives of Saints\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eAn Erotics of Ancient Hagiography\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eVirginia Burrus (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812220209\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 29 October 2007\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e224 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.348 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A dazzling series of readings of early Christian hagiographies that will, by turns, delight, confound, illuminate, and challenge diverse historians, theologians, and theorists.\"-\u003ci\u003eChurch History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Brilliant and important. . . . From page one she challenges approaches to hagiography that dismiss ascetic desire as the sublimation of sexuality and a pathological hatred of the body.\"-\u003ci\u003eTheological Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"This fine book detects a vibrant eroticism in tales of fourth- and fifth-century saints. Rather than read ancient saints' lives as anti-erotic, or, worse, \u003ci\u003ean\u003c\/i\u003e-erotic, Burrus reveals a flourishing \u003ci\u003ears erotica\u003c\/i\u003e.\"-\u003ci\u003eJournal of Religion\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Burrus's interweaving of ancient and modern voices is as meditative as it is analytical, but the overall effect is to induce the reader into an alternative view of what constitutes the allure of the saintly life. . . . After \u003ci\u003eThe Sex Lives of Saints\u003c\/i\u003e hagiography will never be the same.\"-\u003ci\u003eJournal of Early Christian Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn engrossing, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable read.\"-\u003ci\u003eJournal of the History of Sexuality\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eHas 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.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWithout reducing the erotics of ancient hagiography to a single formula, \u003ci\u003eThe Sex Lives of Saints\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction: Hagiography and the History of Sexuality\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCH. 1. FANCYING HERMITS: SUBLIMATION AND THE ARTS OF ROMANCE\u003cbr\u003e The Queer Life of Paul the Hermit\u003cbr\u003e The Queer Marriage of Malchus the Monk\u003cbr\u003e Hilarion's Last Laugh\u003cbr\u003e Prolongations: Fantasies of a Faun\u003cbr\u003e Reading (as) Another, Woman\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCH. 2. DYING FOR A LIFE: MARTYRDOM, MASOCHISM, AND FEMALE (AUTO)BIOGRAPHY\u003cbr\u003e Praising Paula\u003cbr\u003e Remembering Macrina\u003cbr\u003e Confessing Monica\u003cbr\u003e Testimony to (Woman's) Survival\u003cbr\u003e Fragments of an Autobiography\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCH. 3. HYBRID DESIRE: EMPIRE, SADISM, AND THE SOLDIER SAINT\u003cbr\u003e Domination and Submission in the Life of Martin\u003cbr\u003e Sulpicius's Passion\u003cbr\u003e The Hagiographer, the Ethnographer, and the Native\u003cbr\u003e Witnessing Ambivalence\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCH. 4. SECRETS OF SEDUCTION: THE LIVES OF HOLY HARLOTS\u003cbr\u003e The Lamb, the Wolf, and the Fool: Mary, Niece of Abraham\u003cbr\u003e Seduction of the Eye: Pelagia of Antioch\u003cbr\u003e Sacrifice in the Desert: Mary of Egypt\u003cbr\u003e The Joy of Harlotry\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePostscript (Catching My Breath)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52521228402968,"sku":"9780812220209","price":22.96,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-sex-lives-of-saints-an-erotics-of-ancient-hagiography-paperback-softback-9780812220209","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}