The student will acquire in-depth and detailed knowledge of relevant issues in the history of Christianity at different times, through the analysis of different types of sources and the comparison with secondary literature. It will acquire scientific research tools and methodological principles necessary for reading the sources. The student will also acquire critical skills in the collection and interpretation of data, in order to express and communicate in a scientifically correct language independent judgments on the analyzed issues.
teacher profile teaching materials
The reflection on the female body and the manifold declinations of its instrumentalization, which has been set at the center of the contemporary debate by the feminist thought, is of current issue and controversy. How has the woman's body been represented by the Christian authors and the few Christian women writers during Ancient and Medieval Times? How has it been depicted inart ? The course aims to face the subject of the female body according to an historical perspective, considering such a body in its biological and cultural dimension, keeping in mind the most broadly shared medical and philosophical conceptions , the metaphoric language, the cultural models and the exegetical developments. Virgins, martyrs, mothers, martyrs, mothers, brides, widows, nuns: to each category corresponds a body, to whose plasmation contribute homilies of bishops, treatises on virginity, hagiographic novels, martyrs' passions, historiographical works, pictorial representations.
Students attending the course are required to write a short paper on a chosen topic .
Kari Elisabeth Børresen, Emanuela Prinzivalli (a cura di), Le donne nello sguardo degli antichi autori cristiani, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2013
A collection of diverse primary sources around several major themes will be provided during the course
Students who are not able to attend the lectures have to read
Kari Elisabeth Børresen, Emanuela Prinzivalli (a cura di), Le donne nello sguardo degli antichi autori cristiani, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2013
and one of the following books:
Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity,Columbia University Press, 2008
Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women,University of California 1988.
Jacques Le Goff-Nicolas Truong, Une histoire du corps au Moyen Âge , Paris, L.Levi, 2003.
Aline Rousselle, Porneia : de la maîtrise du corps à la privation sensorielle, IIe-IVe siècles de l'ère chrétienne Paris , Presses universitaires de France , 1983
Programme
The woman's body in the Christian imaginary: discourses and images from the Ancient and Medieval ChristianityThe reflection on the female body and the manifold declinations of its instrumentalization, which has been set at the center of the contemporary debate by the feminist thought, is of current issue and controversy. How has the woman's body been represented by the Christian authors and the few Christian women writers during Ancient and Medieval Times? How has it been depicted inart ? The course aims to face the subject of the female body according to an historical perspective, considering such a body in its biological and cultural dimension, keeping in mind the most broadly shared medical and philosophical conceptions , the metaphoric language, the cultural models and the exegetical developments. Virgins, martyrs, mothers, martyrs, mothers, brides, widows, nuns: to each category corresponds a body, to whose plasmation contribute homilies of bishops, treatises on virginity, hagiographic novels, martyrs' passions, historiographical works, pictorial representations.
Students attending the course are required to write a short paper on a chosen topic .
Core Documentation
For students who attend lecturesKari Elisabeth Børresen, Emanuela Prinzivalli (a cura di), Le donne nello sguardo degli antichi autori cristiani, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2013
A collection of diverse primary sources around several major themes will be provided during the course
Students who are not able to attend the lectures have to read
Kari Elisabeth Børresen, Emanuela Prinzivalli (a cura di), Le donne nello sguardo degli antichi autori cristiani, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2013
and one of the following books:
Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity,Columbia University Press, 2008
Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women,University of California 1988.
Jacques Le Goff-Nicolas Truong, Une histoire du corps au Moyen Âge , Paris, L.Levi, 2003.
Aline Rousselle, Porneia : de la maîtrise du corps à la privation sensorielle, IIe-IVe siècles de l'ère chrétienne Paris , Presses universitaires de France , 1983
Type of delivery of the course
36 h 6cfu II semType of evaluation
Students attending the course are required to write a short essay on one selected topic.