The suffering self : pain and narrative representation in the early Christian era /
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| Author / Creator: | Perkins, Judith, 1944- |
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| Imprint: | London ; New York : Routledge, 1995. |
| Description: | 254 p. |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/1749968 |
| Summary: | The 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.<br> 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.<br> Judith Perkins' controversial study is important reading for all those interested in ancient society, or in the history `f Christianity. |
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| Physical Description: | 254 p. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0415113636 0415127068 |