Palestinian Trans Saints in Late Antiquity: Gender, Sexuality, and Class in the Lives of Pelagia the Penitent, Mary of Egypt, and Susanna of Eleutheropolis from Feminist and Trans Perspectives
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | CAS Sofia Working Paper Series |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1124460 |
| Keywords | trans saints; Byzantium; hagiography; sanctity; gender |
| Description | This article reexamines the concepts of agency and resistance of feminist and transgender theory in application to analysis of the three late antique Lives of gender-crossing saints from the Holy Land: Pelagia the Harlot, Mary of Egypt, and Susanna of Eleutheropolis. It investigates the possibilities for agency and resistance of the fictional protagonists of these hagiographic narratives against the forms of domination and the encroachments of power in the Byzantine social and religious contexts. This study contends that, despite the constraints of their situation, the subjugated individuals were capable of exercising their agency and not passive victims of the existing social system. Even if “gender-crossing” acts themselves did not undermine the conditions of oppression, albeit discursively destabilizing the societal norms of gender and sexuality, the small-scale forms of resistances of the dominated can be recovered in these accounts, notwithstanding the fragmentary and transient character of these efforts. |