Female characters as modes of knowing in late imperial dialogues : The body, desire, and the intellectual life
Book chapter
La Valle, Dawn Teresa. (2023). Female characters as modes of knowing in late imperial dialogues : The body, desire, and the intellectual life. In In Ayres, L., Champion, M. and Crawford, M. (Ed.). The Intellectual world of late antique Christianity : Reshaping classical traditions pp. 347 - 365 Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108883559.021
Authors | La Valle, Dawn Teresa |
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Editors | Ayres, L., Champion, M. and Crawford, M. |
Abstract | From the Socratics to Augustine, men used women’s voices in philosophical dialogues to speak as experts on the body, especially in three aspects: birth, the physical details of death, and erotic desire. These connections were inaugurated by Plato and Xenophon. However, a changing anthropology, and especially the belief that the body persisted after death, led certain Christian authors to increase the role given to female characters. When the body was revalued and brought into the centre of philosophical focus, women’s voices moved from reported speech into direct speech. Simultaneously, late ancient Christian authors reflected on the inherent connection between erotic desire and the genre of the dialogue itself, matching their subject to their form. Using female characters in their dialogues helped male authors come to know certain things that using male voices could not do as well, by thinking through specific topics ‘like a woman’; the female, with her culturally embodied nature, became a model of an ideal life which insisted on the persistence of the body, even in the afterlife. |
Keywords | philosophical dialogue; women; female speakers ; Methodius of Olympus ; Gregory of Nyssa; Macrina; Thecla; embodiment; resurrection of the body; Platonism |
Page range | 347 - 365 |
Year | 01 Jan 2023 |
Book title | The Intellectual world of late antique Christianity : Reshaping classical traditions |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Place of publication | United Kingdom |
Edition | 1 |
ISBN | 9781108883559 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108883559.021 |
Web address (URL) | https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intellectual-world-of-late-antique-christianity/female-characters-as-modes-of-knowing-in-late-imperial-dialogues-the-body-desire-and-the-intellectual-life/ED77509C76E74A968DF6F956196E338A |
Open access | Published as non-open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 05 Oct 2023 |
2023 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 13 Jun 2024 |
Additional information | © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023 |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/909qy/female-characters-as-modes-of-knowing-in-late-imperial-dialogues-the-body-desire-and-the-intellectual-life
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