Early Christian Dress: Gender, Virtue, and Authority

ISBN-13: 9780415890014 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 186 str.

Kristi Upson-Saia

Opis

This study is the first full-length monograph on the subject of dress in early Christianity. It pays attention to the ways in which dress expressed and formed Christian identity, the role dress played in Christians' rivalries with pagan neighbors, and especially to the ways in which notions of gender were culled and revised in the process. Although the construction of gender has consumed scholars of late antiquity in recent years, very few scholars have paid attention to the ways in which dress and physical appearance confirmed or contended with discursive constructions of femininity and masculinity. This study addresses that gap and helps us to understand better how gender was formulated by pagans in the early Imperial period and by Christians in late antiquity.

Recenzje

'[T]his is a carefully edited book for which congratulations are due ... Upson-Saia's innovative focus on women's dress as the crucible where gender, virtue, and authority simmer and seethe will certainly fuel further research.'
– Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Spis treści

Introduction  1. Elite Roman Women’s Dress in the Early Imperial Period  2. Scripting Christians’ Clothing and Grooming  3. Performance Anxiety: Dress and Gender Crises in Early Christian Asceticism  4. Narrating Cross-Dressing in Female Saints’ Lives  Conclusion

O autorze

Kristi Upson-Saia is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Occidental College. She specializes in the history and literature of early Christianity, with a focus on the ways in which early Christian identities were constructed through bodily appearances and performances. Her research interests also include gender and sexuality, orthodoxy and heresy, and, representations of deformed, scarred, and stigmatized bodies.