The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography. By Virginia Burrus. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. vi + 216 pp. 42.50/£30.00
Living up to its provocative title, this study tenaciously undermines the notion that ‘the repression of erotic desire is the hallmark of Christian sanctity’ (p. 1) by inviting a closer, if not different, look at some well- and lesser-known Vitæ. Virginia Burrus has extensively published in the area...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2006
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2006, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 209-210 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Living up to its provocative title, this study tenaciously undermines the notion that ‘the repression of erotic desire is the hallmark of Christian sanctity’ (p. 1) by inviting a closer, if not different, look at some well- and lesser-known Vitæ. Virginia Burrus has extensively published in the area of sanctity and sexuality, and here she pulls no punches—on the first page, she asserts that ancient Lives of Saints are ‘the site of an exuberant eroticism’. Burrus suggestively links the recent interest in the erotic subtext of hagiographic narratives to the multicultural climate of the period in which they were produced. According to this schema, pre- and post-modern perspectives possess surprising affinities—both are products of post-colonial societies. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frl019 |