Perpetua's Passions
Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis

Perpetua's Passions is a collection of studies about Perpetua, a young female Christian martyr who was executed in 203 AD. Like her spiritual guide, Saturus, Perpetua left a diary, and a few years after their deaths a fellow Christian collected these writings and supplied them with an introduction and epilogue: the so-called Passion of Perpetua. The result is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic works of antiquity, which the present volume examines from a wide range of perspectives: literary, narratological, historical, religious, psychological, and philosophical viewpoints follow upon a newly edited text and English translation (by Joseph Farrell and Craig Williams). This innovative treatment by a number of distinguished scholars not only complements its unique subject, but constitutes a kind of laboratory of new approaches to ancient texts.

Perpetua's Passions: A Brief Introduction. The Passio Perpetuae': A Working Text and Translation. I. The Martyr and her Gender. 1. Felicitas: The Martyrdom of a Young African Woman. 2. Perpetua's Gender. A Latinist Reads the `Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis'. 3. `Femina liberaliter instituta': Some Thoughts on a Martyr's Liberal Education. 4. `Vibia Perpetua': An Indecent Woman. 5. The `Passio Perpetuae' and Jewish Martyrdom: The Motif of Motherly Love. 6. Perpetual Contest. 7. Maternity and Sainthood in the Medieval Perpetua Legend. II. Authority and Testimony. 8. The Editor's Prime Objective: `haec in aedificationem Ecclesiae legere'. 9. Exemplum and Sacrifice, Blood Testimony and Written Testimony: Lucretia and Perpetua as Transitional Figures in the Cultural History of Martyrdom. 10. Visions, Prophecy and Authority in the `Passio Perpetuae'. 11. The Conquest of the Real by the Imaginary: on the `Passio Perpetuae'. 12. Socrates' Passion. 13. `Nova exempla': The New Testament of the `Passio Perpetuae'. III. The Text, the Canon, and the Margins. 14. The `Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis' and Montanism?. 15. Perpetua's Martyrdom and the Metamorphosis of Narrative. 16. The Canonization of Perpetua. 17. The Power of Uncertainty: Interpreting the `Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas'. 18. Perpetua's Prisons: Notes on the Margins of Literature. Epilogue.