Female Corporeal Performances

[Vetus Ordo]

Female Corporeal Performances: Reading the Body in Byzantine Passions and Lives of Holy Women

By Stavroula Constantinou, Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus.

This study argues that the religious acts and behaviour depicted in Byzantine hagiography can be seen as performances. The martyr, the monk/nun, the patriarch and the cross-dresser, for instance, are roles undertaken by the heroes and heroines of Byzantine hagiography in order to serve God and achieve sanctity. In this study, the most important roles of female sanctity are approached as depicted in Passions and Lives of holy women through investigating the heroines' bodies which play a vital role in the performance of religious behaviour and the construction of sanctity. The study thus exploits performance theory which suggests that daily life consists of various and repeated performances including particular embodied acts realised in specific places and witnessed by others and/or the watching self. Here such performances are observed and examined in the roles of the martyr, the penitent, the cross-dresser, the nun, the abbess and the pious wife.

You can read the PDF here.