Date: Thursday, February 23, 2012. 5:30 PM.
Location: Levinthal Hall, Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA
This lecture examines how the fluid relationship between body and soul in the twelfth century eventually becomes rigidified over the course of the thirteenth century in Beguine hagiography. The lives of these holy women provide a permanent bridge between living and dead, confirming both the continuity of identity of the deceased as well as Christianity’s theological commitment to the integral unity of body and soul. This solidification of a post-mortem identity has important consequences for gender: for although the soul is supposed to be devoid of sex, hagiography creates a supernatural landscape in which body gradually drains into soul. Dyan Elliott is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of the Humanities at Northwestern University. Her research centers on the intersection between gender, sexuality, and spirituality. Elliott’s most recent book is The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500.
Location: Levinthal Hall, Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA
This lecture examines how the fluid relationship between body and soul in the twelfth century eventually becomes rigidified over the course of the thirteenth century in Beguine hagiography. The lives of these holy women provide a permanent bridge between living and dead, confirming both the continuity of identity of the deceased as well as Christianity’s theological commitment to the integral unity of body and soul. This solidification of a post-mortem identity has important consequences for gender: for although the soul is supposed to be devoid of sex, hagiography creates a supernatural landscape in which body gradually drains into soul. Dyan Elliott is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of the Humanities at Northwestern University. Her research centers on the intersection between gender, sexuality, and spirituality. Elliott’s most recent book is The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500.