The gendered palimpsest: women, writing, and representation in early christianity

The book provides a thorough treatment of the roles of women as authors, scribes, booklenders, and patrons of early Christianity literature, and of the ways in which the representation of female figures was contested in the process of copying early Christian texts. Books and bodies, women and books lie thematically at the center of The Gendered Palimpsest, which explores the roles thatwomen played in the production, reproduction, and dissemination of early Christian books, and how the representation of female characters is contested through the medium of writing and copying. The book is organized in two sections,the first of which treats historical questions: To what extent were women authors, scribes, book-lenders, and patrons ofearly Christian literature? How should we understand the representation of women readers in ascetic literature? The second section of the book turns to text-critical questions: How and why were stories of women modified in the process of copying? And how did debates about asceticism - and, more specifically,the human body - find their way into the textual transmission of canonical and apocryphal literature?Throughout, Haines-Eitzen uses the notion of a palimpsest in its broadest sense to highlight the problems of representation, layering, erasure, and reinscription. In doing so, she provides a new dimension to the gendered history of early Christianity. INDICE: Introduction Part One: Women Writing and Reading in Early Christianity and Late Antiquity 1. Women Writing, Writing for Women: Authors, Scribes,Book-Lenders, and Patrons 2. Reading, not Eating: Women Readers in Late Ancient Christian Asceticism 3. Women's Literature? The Case of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles Part Two: Sexual/Textual Politics and Late Ancient Asceticism 4. Sinners and Saints, Silent and Submissive? The Textual/Sexual Transformation of Female Characters 5. "First Among All Women": The Story of Thecla in Textual Transmission and Iconographic Remains 6. Contesting the Ascetic Language of Eros: Textual Fluidity in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles Conclusion Bibliography

• ISBN: 978-0-19-517129-7
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 208
• Fecha Publicación: 08/12/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés