Place and Identity in the Lives of Antony, Paul, and Mary of Egypt: Desert as Borderland (Religion and Spatial Studies)

In this book__,__ Peter Anthony Mena looks closely at descriptions of space in ancient Christian hagiographies and considers how __the desert__ relates to constructions of subjectivity. By reading three pivotal ancient hagiographies—the __Life of Antony__, the __Life of Paul the Hermit__, and the __Life of Mary of Egypt__—in conjunction with Gloria Anzaldúa’s ideas about the US/Mexican borderlands/__la frontera,__ Mena shows readers how descriptions of the desert in these texts are replete with spaces and inhabitants that render the desert a borderland or frontier space in Anzaldúan terms. As a borderland space, the desert functions as a device for the creation of an emerging identity in late antiquity—the desert ascetic. Simultaneously, the space of the desert is created through the image of the saint. Literary critical, religious studies, and historical methodologies converge in this work in order to illuminate a heuristic tool for interpreting the desert in late antiquity and its importance for the development of desert asceticism. Anzaldúa’s theories help guide a reading especially attuned to the important relationship between space and subjectivity. In this book , Peter Anthony Mena looks closely at descriptions of space in ancient Christian hagiographies and considers how the desert relates to constructions of subjectivity. By reading three pivotal ancient hagiographies—the Life of Antony , the Life of Paul the Hermit , and the Life of Mary of Egypt —in conjunction with Gloria Anzaldúa’s ideas about the US/Mexican borderlands/ la frontera, Mena shows readers how descriptions of the desert in these texts are replete with spaces and inhabitants that render the desert a borderland or frontier space in Anzaldúan terms. As a borderland space, the desert functions as a device for the creation of an emerging identity in late antiquity—the desert ascetic. Simultaneously, the space of the desert is created through the image of the saint. Literary critical, religious studies, and historical methodologies converge in this work in order to illuminate a heuristic tool for interpreting the desert in late antiquity and its importance for the development of desert asceticism. Anzaldúa’s theories help guide a reading especially attuned to the important relationship between space and subjectivity. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction: Mapping the Desert, Mapping Identity in Late Antiquity (Peter Anthony Mena)....Pages 1-7 Anzaldúa, Space Theorist: Mapping Ancient Hagiographies (Peter Anthony Mena)....Pages 9-24 Tierra Natal: Athanasius’s Desert as Mestiza Homeland (Peter Anthony Mena)....Pages 25-60 Saints, Centaurs, and Satyrs: Going Wild in the Desert (Peter Anthony Mena)....Pages 61-84 The Holy Harlotry of Mestizaje (Peter Anthony Mena)....Pages 85-114 Conclusion: The Functions of the Frontera in the Late Ancient Imagination (Peter Anthony Mena)....Pages 115-120 Back Matter ....Pages 121-123