Perpetua's Passions Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis

Perpetua's Passionsis a collection of studies about Perpetua, a young female Christian martyr who was executed in 203 AD. Like her spiritual guide, Saturus, Perpetua left a diary, and a few years after their deaths a fellow Christian collected these writings and supplied them with an introduction and epilogue: the so-calledPassion of Perpetua. The result is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic works of antiquity, which the present volume examines from a wide range of perspectives: literary, narratological, historical, religious, psychological, and philosophical viewpoints follow upon a newly edited text and English translation (by Joseph Farrell and Craig Williams). This innovative treatment by a number of distinguished scholars not only complements its unique subject, but constitutes a kind of laboratory of new approaches to ancient texts.

Jan N. Bremmer is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen.

Marco Formisano is Research Fellow at Humboldt-Universitat, Berlin.

Perpetua's Passions: A Brief Introduction, Jan N. Bremmer & Marco Formisano
The Passio Perpetuae': A Working Text and Translation, Joseph Farrell & Craig Williams
I. The Martyr and her Gender
1. Felicitas: The Martyrdom of a Young African Woman, Jan N. Bremmer
2. Perpetua's Gender. A Latinist Reads the `Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis', Craig Williams
3. `Femina liberaliter instituta': Some Thoughts on a Martyr's Liberal Education, Walter Ameling
4. `Vibia Perpetua': An Indecent Woman, Hanne Sigismund Nielsen
5. The `Passio Perpetuae' and Jewish Martyrdom: The Motif of Motherly Love, Jan Willem van Henten
6. Perpetual Contest, Mieke Bal
7. Maternity and Sainthood in the Medieval Perpetua Legend, Julia Weitbrecht
II. Authority and Testimony
8. The Editor's Prime Objective: `haec in aedificationem Ecclesiae legere', Jan den Boeft
9. Exemplum and Sacrifice, Blood Testimony and Written Testimony: Lucretia and Perpetua as Transitional Figures in the Cultural History of Martyrdom, Sigrid Weigel
10. Visions, Prophecy and Authority in the `Passio Perpetuae', Katharina Waldner
11. The Conquest of the Real by the Imaginary: on the `Passio Perpetuae', Hartmut Bohme
12. Socrates' Passion, Giulia Sissa
13. `Nova exempla': The New Testament of the `Passio Perpetuae', Luca Bagetto
III. The Text, the Canon, and the Margins
14. The `Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis' and Montanism?, Christoph Markschies
15. Perpetua's Martyrdom and the Metamorphosis of Narrative, David Konstan
16. The Canonization of Perpetua, Joseph Farrell
17. The Power of Uncertainty: Interpreting the `Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas', Philippe Mesnard
18. Perpetua's Prisons: Notes on the Margins of Literature, Marco Formisano
Epilogue, Marina Warner