WEEK ONE (Oct. 4):  Writing the Life

What models for the "holy life" (both lived and written) existed in the ancient world, and what can they tell us about the idealized "self"? What functions might such written Lives serve, and for whom? Was the gospel a "holy life," or something different? How does the saint's life differ from the modern biography (using the example of the Gospel of Mark and other ancient biographies)? Why are so many of our ancient Christian Lives ascetic?

Readings (NB: Readings must be acquired and read before this first meeting)

"General Introduction," from White, Early Christian Lives; Porphyry, "Life of Plotinus"; Gospel of Mark; *Patricia Cox, Biography in Late Antiquity, 3-16 and 45-65

No presentations

WEEK TWO (Oct. 11): Pain, Renunciation, and Imitation

What did Christians in the first centuries gain from accounts of lives that explicitly rejected the social order, such as the anti-sex Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and widely circulated martyr texts? How does the production of such fantastic "lives" relate to non-Christian literary production? Are these accounts meant to be historical? Imitatible? How do they contribute to the embodiment of religious identity?

Readings: "The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas"; "The Martyrdom of Polycarp"; "The Acts of Paul and Thecla"; *Judith Perkins, The Suffering Self, 104-23; *Elizabeth Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory, 69-103 and 232-247 (notes)

Presentations:

WEEK THREE (Oct. 18): Life and Landscape

What role does setting play in the fashioning of a saintly Life, and why does the desert become so prominent in Christian hagiography? Why was the Life of Antony so popular and so translatable? Is the geography of the saintly Life a "realistic" place, or a fantasyland?

Readings: "The Life of Antony" and "The Life of Paul the Hermit" in White, Early Christian Lives; *James Goehring, "The Dark Side of the Landscape," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33 (2003): 437-51; *Patricia Cox Miller, "Jerome's Centaur: A Hyper-Icon of the Desert," Journal of Early Christian Studies 4 (1996): 209-33

Presentations:

WEEK FOUR (Oct. 25): Society and History

Can hagiography serve as a historical source, or is it always symbolic of "something else" in the social order? What evidence can we marshal from Lives for the social roles of "holy men," and what might this tell us about the relationship between symbols, rituals, texts, and social realities? (Special focus on the work, and aftermath, or Peter Brown's anthropologically influenced works in the 1970s.)

Readings:  Theoderet's "Life of Simeon Stylites" from Doran, Lives of Simeon Stylties; *Peter Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity," Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 80-101; *Peter Brown, "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity"; *Peter Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, 1971-1997," Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998): 353-76

Presentations:

Midterm on "Life of Martin" distributed

WEEK FIVE (Nov. 1): Gender and Sexuality

How is gender inflected or subverted in the construction of the holy Life? Why were some women known as "holy men of God," and others as "holy harlots"? How are gender and sexuality formed in the matrix of hagiography? Are women's lives primarily models for women, or men, or both?

Readings: Benedicta Ward, Harlots of the Desert;  *Patricia Cox Miller, "Is there a Harlot in this Text? Hagiography and the Grotesque," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33 (2003): 420-35

Presentations:

WEEK SIX (Nov. 8): Institution and Monasticism

How were saints' lives, and Lives, used to bolster, or critique, institutional forms of ascetic life (monasticism) in late antiquity? Who was meant to imitate the life of a monastic founder: a layperson, a monk, an abbot, or all of the above? To what extent are Lives domestications of sacred lives?

Readings: "Life of Benedict," in White, Early Christian Lives; Selections from the "Rule of Benedict"

Presentations: Cyril of Scythopolis, Lives of the Monks of Palestine; any chapter from James Goehring, Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Egyptian Monasticism; E.E. Malone, The Monk and the Martyr: The Monk as Successor of the Martyr

Midterm due; Final paper topic due

WEEK SEVEN (Nov. 15): Exoticism and "Otherness"

What was the attraction of sacred extremism--sitting on pillars, wandering in fields, wearing chains--and exotic locales? What was the audience for such literature, and what effect were such extreme, "other" Lives supposed to have?

Readings: The second Greek or Syriac "Life of Simeon" from Doran, Lives of Simeon Stylites; "The Life of Hilarion" and "The Life of Malchus" in White, Early Christian Lives (you should also reread "The Life of Paul the First Hermit"; *Virginia Burrus, "Queer Lives of Saints: Jerome's Hagiography," Journal of the History of Sexuality 10 (2001): 442-79

Presentations:

WEEK EIGHT (Nov. 22): NO CLASS (AAR AND THANKSGIVING)

WEEK NINE (Nov. 29): Materiality and Spirituality

What is the relationship between text and relic in the articulation of holy persons? On what grounds did Christian attach to, and resist, the power of sacred objects? How did the cult of relics articulate social and religious relations around the (dead) holy person?

Readings: Peter Brown, Cult of the Saints; Jerome, "Against Vigilantius"

Presentations:

WEEK TEN (Dec. 6): Modernity and Postmodernity

Why are moderns and postmoderns still drawn to the example of hagiography to articulate values, and what does a "postmodern hagiography" look like? Is it Christian? "Western"? It is sincere or parodic or entirely traditional? The example of Michel Foucault, French philosopher and theorist who, late in life, dabbled in early Christian studies, will be explored. (Students should also be prepared to give progress reports to their classmates on their final projects).

Readings: David Halperin, Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography; *Elizabeth Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory, 172-96

Presentations: Student final projects