The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian EraThe Suffering Self is a ground-breaking, interdisciplinary study of the spread of Christianity across the Roman empire. Judith Perkins shows how Christian narrative representation in the early empire worked to create a new kind of human self-understanding - the perception of the self as sufferer. Drawing on feminist and social theory, she addresses the question of why forms of suffering like martyrdom and self-mutilation were so important to early Christians. This study crosses the boundaries between ancient history and the study of early Christianity, seeing Christian representation in the context of the Greco-Roman world. She draws parallels with suffering heroines in Greek novels and in martyr acts and examines representations in medical and philosophical texts. Judith Perkins' controversial study is important reading for all those interested in ancient society, or in the history `f Christianity. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 61
Page 2
... period of a pronounced general interest in medicine as the prominence of the doctors Rufus, Soranus, Aretaeus, and Galen testified (Nutton 1985:24). Glen Bowersock pointed to the emphasis on the body and its health in the extant ...
... period of a pronounced general interest in medicine as the prominence of the doctors Rufus, Soranus, Aretaeus, and Galen testified (Nutton 1985:24). Glen Bowersock pointed to the emphasis on the body and its health in the extant ...
Page 4
... period. I wish to argue in this book that this emergent cultural subject, and the ideological shift it gives hint of, helped to enable the growth of Christianity. Before proceeding to outline my argument, I should locate my work in its ...
... period. I wish to argue in this book that this emergent cultural subject, and the ideological shift it gives hint of, helped to enable the growth of Christianity. Before proceeding to outline my argument, I should locate my work in its ...
Page 5
... period, they must incorporate the testimony of many different kinds of discourses. In Leonard Tennenhouse's words, “the history of a culture is a history of all its products” (Tennenhouse 1982:141). Clifford Geertz also pointed to the ...
... period, they must incorporate the testimony of many different kinds of discourses. In Leonard Tennenhouse's words, “the history of a culture is a history of all its products” (Tennenhouse 1982:141). Clifford Geertz also pointed to the ...
Page 6
... period work to produce particular “subjectivities,” i.e., particular forms of selfunderstandings and particular social worlds that generate certain kinds of social power. The dominant power in a society is recognized as being sustained ...
... period work to produce particular “subjectivities,” i.e., particular forms of selfunderstandings and particular social worlds that generate certain kinds of social power. The dominant power in a society is recognized as being sustained ...
Page 7
... period. That is to say, a new knowledge was growing up around this subject, for knowledge is, in Edward Said's words, “the making visible of material” (Said 1979:127). Suffering may be everywhere, but if it is not brought to cultural ...
... period. That is to say, a new knowledge was growing up around this subject, for knowledge is, in Edward Said's words, “the making visible of material” (Said 1979:127). Suffering may be everywhere, but if it is not brought to cultural ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
2 Marriages as Happy Endings
| 41 |
3 Pain Without Effect
| 77 |
4 Suffering and Power
| 104 |
The Acts of Peter
| 124 |
6 The Sick Self
| 142 |
7 Ideology Not Pathology
| 173 |
The Community of Sufferers
| 200 |
Notes | 215 |
Bibliography | 228 |
Index | 247 |
Other editions - View all
The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era Judith Perkins No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Tatius actions Acts of Peter Aelius Aristides ancient Anthia Aristides Asclepius Blandina bodily Callirhoe Chaereas Chariton chastity Christ Christian community Christian discourse Christianity’s civic Clitophon constructed contemporary context Contra Celsum couple’s cultural death Democritus demonstrated depicted described Dinocrates displayed divine doctors dream early empire elite emperor emphasis endurance Epictetus Eudemus example explained explicitly father focus focused Foucault function Galen genre god’s Greek romances Habrocomes hagiography healing Hermocrates human ideological Ignatius individual Justin knowledge Konstan Leucippe Leucippe and Clitophon Lives Lucian MacMullen Marcellus Marcus Aurelius marriage martyr Acts martyrdom medicine Melite nature novel offered pagan pain particular Peregrinus period Perpetua persecution person philosopher physical pirates plot Prognosis prohairesis readers recognized rejected representation represented resurrection role Roman empire saints second century sick Simon slave social society society’s soul Stoic suffering body suggested traditional understanding wellborn woman Xenophon