General
Welcome to Fluidity of Gender in the Early and Medieval Church
- Eileen M. Harney
Email: eharney@marlboro.edu
Office: Dalrymple 32
- Unsurprisingly, gender and the "appropriate" roles of the sexes were a constant concern within the Early and Medieval Church. This class will examine the "standard" and expected gender paradigms promoted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages and how religious and holy people conformed to and/or rebelled against them. The relationships that men and women had with the divine and with each other as well as how these men and women interpreted these relationships will be considered. The dominant and recurring imagery and language used to depict these relationships will also be studied closely. This course will explore the different circumstances and social situations that allowed women and men to engage in behavior either atypical or forbidden for their sex/gender. A focus will be placed on individuals who by challenging the standard structure experienced elements of gender fluidity and who, as a result, became acknowledged as "exemplary" and "holy" for contemporary and/or later Christians.
- COURSE MATERIALS
- ADDITIONAL MATERIALS OF INTEREST