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 47
Page 3
... roles and their world through their culture's discursive practices and the “reality” these practices bring into cultural consciousness. It is my contention in this study that the discursive focus in the second century on the suffering ...
... roles and their world through their culture's discursive practices and the “reality” these practices bring into cultural consciousness. It is my contention in this study that the discursive focus in the second century on the suffering ...
Page 5
... roles of kings or emperors or the actions of armies or states, but focus instead on the discursive practices through which persons in a society learn to apprehend themselves and their roles in certain ways.3 Foucault noted that power ...
... roles of kings or emperors or the actions of armies or states, but focus instead on the discursive practices through which persons in a society learn to apprehend themselves and their roles in certain ways.3 Foucault noted that power ...
Page 10
... role as “lovers of the poor.” The bishops' authority thus rested on their connection with a category whose visibility in the Roman cities derived from the perception of the subjectivity of “the sufferer.” In Brown's words, In the name ...
... role as “lovers of the poor.” The bishops' authority thus rested on their connection with a category whose visibility in the Roman cities derived from the perception of the subjectivity of “the sufferer.” In Brown's words, In the name ...
Page 12
... role, the little girls embraced the subjectivity I see being constructed in the early empire as “for them” (Cohan and Shires 1988:149). In such ways are selfunderstandings (re)produced and maintained, as individuals come to imagine and ...
... role, the little girls embraced the subjectivity I see being constructed in the early empire as “for them” (Cohan and Shires 1988:149). In such ways are selfunderstandings (re)produced and maintained, as individuals come to imagine and ...
Page 21
... role played by the martyr in the Christian community and the connection between the martyr's high standing and the Christians' selfunderstanding: “The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to ...
... role played by the martyr in the Christian community and the connection between the martyr's high standing and the Christians' selfunderstanding: “The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to ...
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