Rubber Soul: Gender, Theology, and the Hagiographical Spirit World of the High Middle Ages

This lecture examines how the fluid relationship between body and soul in the twelfth century eventually becomes rigidified over the course of the thirteenth century in Beguine hagiography. The lives of these holy women provide a permanent bridge between living and dead, confirming both the continuity of identity of the deceased as well as Christianity’s theological commitment to the integral unity of body and soul. This solidification of a post-mortem identity has important consequences for gender: for although the soul is supposed to be devoid of sex, hagiography creates a supernatural landscape in which body gradually drains into soul.

Dyan Elliott is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of the Humanities at Northwestern University. Her research centers on the intersection between gender, sexuality, and spirituality. Elliott’s most recent book is The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500.

When:

Thursday, February 23, 2012. 5:30 PM.
Approximate duration of 1.5 hour(s).

Where:

Levinthal Hall, Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA (Map)

Audience:

General Public
Faculty/Staff
Students
Alumni/Friends

Tags:

Lecture / Reading
Humanities

Sponsor:

Sponsored by Department of Religious Studies and the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, co-sponsored by the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Stanford Humanities Center.

Contact:

723-3322
toy@stanford.edu

Admission:

This lecture is part of a series on "RELIGION AND GENDER."  Free and open to the public.

Permalink:

http://events.stanford.edu/events/309/30961