Virginity Revisited : Configurations of the Unpossessed Body

This is a study of the positive and negative features of sexual renunciation, from ancient Greek divinities and mythical women, in Rome's Vestal Virgins, in the Christian martyrs and Mariology in the Medieval and early Modern period, and in Grace Marks, the heroine of Margaret Atwood's novel __Alias Grace__.

From Classical Antiquity to the present, virginity has been closely allied with power: as someone who chooses a life of celibacy retains mastery over his or her body. Sexual potency withheld becomes an energy-reservoir that can ensure independence and enhance self-esteem, but it can also be harnessed by public institutions and redirected for the common good. This was the founding principle of the Vestal Virgins of Rome and later in the monastic orders of the middle ages. Mythical accounts of goddesses and heroines who possessed the ability to recover their virginity after sexual experience demonstrate a belief that virginity is paradoxically connected both with social autonomy and the ability to serve the human community.

Virginity Revisited is a collection of essays that examines virginity not as a physical reality but as a cultural artefact. By situating the topic of virginity within a range of historical ‘moments’ and using a variety of methodologies, Virginity Revisited illuminates how chastity provided a certain agency, autonomy, and power to women. This is a study of the positive and negative features of sexual renunciation, from ancient Greek divinities and mythical women, in Rome's Vestal Virgins, in the Christian martyrs and Mariology in the Medieval and early Modern period, and in Grace Marks, the heroine of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace.

Contents 7 Introduction 11 1. The Invention of Virginity on Olympus 23 2. The Virgin Choruses of Aeschylus 34 3. The Hippocratic Parthenos in Sickness and Health 50 4. Why Were the Vestals Virgins? Or the Chastity of Women and the Safety of the Roman State 76 5. ‘Only Virgins Can Give Birth to Christ’: The Virgin Mary and the Problem of Female Authority in Late Antiquity 110 6. Virgo Fortis: Images of the Crucified Virgin Saint in Medieval Art 126 7. Amplification of the Virgin: Play and Empowerment in Walter of Wimborne’s Marie Carmina 138 8. Christ from the Head of Jupiter: An Epistemological Note on Huet’s Treatment of the Virgin Birth 159 9. ‘Sew and snip, and patch together a genius’: Quilting a Virginal Identity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace 166 Works Cited 187 Index 207 "Virginity Revisited is a collection of essays that examines virginity not as a physical reality but as a cultural artefact. By situating the topic of virginity within a range of historical 'moments' and using a variety of methodologies, Virginity Revisited illuminates how chastity provided a certain agency, autonomy, and power to women. This is a study of the positive and negative features of sexual renunciation, in ancient Greek divinities and mythical women, in Rome's Vestal Virgins, in the Christian martyrs and Mariology in the medieval and early modern period, and in Grace Marks, the heroine of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace."--Jacket This is a study of the positive and negative features of sexual renunciation, from ancient Greek divinities and mythical women, in Rome's Vestal Virgins, in the Christian martyrs and Mariology in the Medieval and early Modern period, and in Grace Marks, the heroine of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace .