|
|
Article: Eloquent Virgins from Thecla to Joan of Arc.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Church History
- Article date:
- March 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 American Society of Church History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Eloquent Virgins from Thecla to Joan of Arc. By Maud Burnett McInerney. The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. ix + 250 pp. $45.00 cloth.
Virgins and martyrs are clearly people out of control--the virgin rejects the claims of family and society, the martyr the demands of the state. This study, focused on the female virgin martyr, argues that the struggle for control extends to the narrative or rhetoric surrounding the saint. In her survey of the virgin martyr ideal in the medieval West, McInerney argues that representations by male writers such as Ambrose seek to render the virgin martyr passive and silent, while texts by female authors, such as ...