Eloquent Virgins: The Rhetoric of Virginity from Thecla to Joan of Arc

by Maud Burnett McInerney

The tales of the virgin martyrs typically emphasize the torture and mutilation of beautiful young women. To the modern reader, these medieval texts seem like exercises in sadism, but 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,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312223501
• ISBN13: 9780312223502
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"