Eloquent Virgins

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction: Genuine Devotion, Imaginary Bodies

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 1-13

3. Strange Triangle: Tertullian, Perpetua, Thecla

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 15-45

4. Androgynous Virgins and the Threat of Rape in the Fourth Century

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 47-83

5. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous in the Works of Hrotsvitha

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 85-110

6. A Chorus of Virgins: Hildegard’s Symphonia

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 111-141

7. Pelagius, Rupert, and the Problem of Male Virginity in Hrotsvitha and Hildegard

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 143-163

8. Catherine and Margaret: Vernacular Virgins and the Golden Legend

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 165-193

9. Epilogue: Joan of Arc

   • Maud Burnett McInerney

   Pages 195-211

10. Back Matter

    Pages 213-250

    PDF

The tales of the virgin martyrs inevitably emphasize the torture and mutilation of beautiful young women. To the modern reader, these popular texts seem like exercises in sadism, but while they could be made to function as vehicles for active misogyny, they also provided Medieval women such as Hildegard of Bingen and Joan of Arc with role models who helped them to shape their own extraordinary destinies. This book explores the ability of the virgin body to generate contradictory meanings, both repressive and liberating, depending on who told the tale and how it was told.

• gender
• history
• medieval history
• misogyny
• Ovid
• women

MAUD BURNETT MCINERNEY teaches English and Medieval Studies at Haverford College.

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