Gender Violence in Late Antiquity

Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination

Jennifer Barry (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

246 Seiten

2025
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-42351-0 (ISBN)

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Gender Violence in Late Antiquity confronts the violent ideological frameworks underpinning the early Christian imagination, arguing that gender-based violence is not peripheral but is fundamental to understanding early Christian history. By analyzing hagiographical and doctrinal writings, Jennifer Barry reveals how male authors used portrayals of feminized suffering to shape ideals of sanctity and power, exploiting themes of domestic abuse, martyrdom, and sexualized violence to reinforce their visions of piety. The study first traces the roots of gendered violence within the Greco-Roman and early Christian imagination, and then explores the disturbing role of male fantasies and dreams in hagiographical traditions. Barry draws on womanist scholarship and engages with trauma studies and feminist horror theory in order to challenge traditional readings of Christian texts, offering new perspectives for understanding how narratives of violence continue to shape contemporary interpretations of gender and power.

Jennifer Barry is Associate Professor of Religious at the University of Mary Washington. She is author of Bishops in Flight: Exile and Displacement in Late Antiquity and an expert on late ancient studies, early Christianity, later Roman antiquity, and gender studies.

Content

Prologue
Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. Bodies in Conflict
2. Forgotten Bodies
3. Impossible Bodies
4. Revenge Fantasies
5. (Bad) Romantic Fantasies
6. Dreams of Mothers
7. Nightmares of Fathers
Epilogue

Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	11.09.2025
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-520-42351-8 / 0520423518
ISBN-13	978-0-520-42351-0 / 9780520423510
Zustand	Neuware