Critical Abstracts: Overview

In summer of 2017, I worked for Professor Susan Harvey as a research assistant on her book project, Women’s Singing, Women’s Stories in Ancient Syriac Christianity. One of my main tasks was to read articles and provide short, critical abstracts for her. I’ve made these abstracts available here, accessible under the category “Critical abstracts — late antiquity”:

• Critical Abstracts: Overview

  In summer of 2017, I worked for Professor Susan Harvey as a research assistant on her book project, Women’s Singing, Women’s Stories in Ancient Syriac Christianity. One of my main tasks was to read articles and provide short, critical abstracts for her. I’ve made these abstracts available ...

• Upson-Saia Critical Abstract

  Upson-Saia, Kristi. “Wounded by Divine Love.” In Melania: Early Christianity through the Life of One Family, edited by Catherine Chin and Caroline Schroeder, 86–105. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.

  In this chapter, Upson-Saia investigates wound metaphors in the ascetic context. She argues that, ...

• Rosenwein Critical Abstract — Worrying about Emotions in History

  Rosenwein, Barbara. “Worrying about Emotions in History.” The American Historical Review 107, no. 3 (2002): 821–45.

  In this article, Rosenwein examines the historiographyof emotions throughout Western history. She describes the first calls for a history of emotions and the theoretical perspective that emerged based ...

• Rosenwein Critical Abstract — Problems and Methods

  Rosenwein, Barbara. “Problems and Methods in the History of Emotions.” Passions In Context, no. 1 (January 2010): 2–32.

  In this paper, Rosenwein argues for a history of emotions based on “emotional communities.” She begins by surveying the scientific literature on emotions to discuss their ...

• Lunsford (ed.) Critical Abstracts

  Lunsford, Andrea, ed. Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women In The Rhetorical Tradition. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995.

  Murphy, foreword, ix–xi.

  In this brief foreword, Murphy lays out the purpose of Reclaiming Rhetorica. He emphasizes that the book does not aim to argue ...

• Norman Critical Abstract

  Norman, Ralph. “Methodius and Methodologies: Ways of Reading Third-Century Christian Sexual Symbolism.” Theology & Sexuality 13, no. 1 (September 1, 2006): 79–100.

  In this article, Norman examines the sexual elements of Methodius’ writings. He sees Methodius’ use of sexual symbolism as part of the ...

• Krawiec Critical Abstract — Monastic Families

  Krawiec, Rebecca. “‘From the Womb of the Church’: Monastic Families.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 11, no. 3 (September 11, 2003): 283–307.

  In this article, Krawiec analyzes four monastic texts to argue that an attitude of “profamilialism” existed alongside the familiar view of antifamilialism. ...

• Krawiec Critical Abstract

  Krawiec, Rebecca. “The Memory of Melania.” In Melania: Early Christianity through the Life of One Family, edited by Catherine Chin and Caroline Schroeder, 130–147. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.

  In this chapter, Krawiec analyses Palladius’ Lausiac History to argue that Melania “is a ...

• König Critical Abstract

  König, Jason. “Sympotic Dialogue in the First to Fifth Centuries CE.” In The End of Dialogue in Antiquity, edited by Simon Goldhill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

  In this chapter, König explores the genre of sympotic writing in late antiquity. With the exception of ...

• Hinterberger Critical Abstract

  Hinterberger, Martin. “Emotions in Byzantium.” In A Companion to Byzantium, edited by Liz James, 123–34. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

  Note: For some quotations in this paper, I was unable to identify the page number because the top of the page was cut off in scanning.

  Hahn, Johannes. “The Veneration of the Maccabean Brothers in Fourth Century Antioch: Religious Competition, Martyrdom, and Innovation.” In Dying for the Faith, Killing for the Faith, edited by Gabriela Signori, 79–104. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2012.

  In this article, Hahn discusses the various sources of ...

• Hackett Critical Abstract

  Hackett, Rosalind. “Sound, Music, and the Study of Religion.” Temenos 48, no. 1 (2012): 11–27.

  In this article, Hackett discusses “historical biases and methodological challenges” (11) in studying religion and sound/music. She notes that her perspective is rooted in the turn to materiality and ...

• Giordano Critical Abstract

  Giordano, Manuela. “Women’s Voice and Religious Utterances in Ancient Greece.” Religions 2, no. 4 (December 20, 2011): 729–43. doi:10.3390/rel2040729.

  In this paper, Giordano investigates women and religion in Ancient Greece by examining curses, supplications, and prayers. She draws on epic and tragedy as “pivotal ...

• Giordana-Zecharya Critical Abstract

  Giordano-Zecharya, Manuela. “Ritual Appropriateness in Seven Against Thebes. Civic Religion in a Time of War.” Mnemosyne 59, no. 1 (2006): 53–74.

  In this article, Giordano-Zecharya analyses religious themes in Seven Against Thebes, the fifth-century tragedy by Aeschylus. She argues that Eteocles and the Chorus ...

• Garland Critical Abstract

  Garland, Lynda. “‘Till Death Do Us Part?’: Family Life in Byzantine Monasteries.” In Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society, edited by Bronwen Neil and Lynda Garland, 29–55. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.

  In this article, Garland describes family life in Byzantine monasteries, with a particular focus ...

• Gador-Whyte Critical Abstract

  Gador-Whyte, Sarah. “Changing Conceptions of Mary in Sixth-Century Byzantium: The Kontakia of Romanos the Melodist.” In Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society, edited by Bronwen Neil and Lynda Garland, 77–92. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.

  Gador-Whyte begins with an intriguing tale of Romanos and his muse: ...

• Fontaine Critical Abstract

  Fontaine, Carol. “The Social Roles of Women in the World of Wisdom.” In Feminist Companion to Wisdom Literature, edited by Athalya Brenner-Idan, 24–49. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1995.

  In this article, Fontaine investigates how women’s lived experience became part of the literary forms, content, and theology ...

• Faulkner Critical Abstract — Gods in Homeric Hymns

  Faulkner, Andrew. “The Gods in the Narratives of the Homeric Hymns.” In The Gods of Greek Hexameter Poetry: From the Archaic Age to Late Antiquity and Beyond, edited by James Joseph Clauss, Martine Cuypers, and Ahuvia Kahane, 32–42. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2016.

  In ...

• Andrew Faulkner — Female Voice of Justice

  Faulkner, Andrew. “The Female Voice of Justice in Aratus’ Phaenomena.” Greece and Rome 62, no. 1 (April 2015): 75–86. doi:10.1017/S0017383514000254.

  In this article, Faulkner discusses the female in Aratus’ Phaenomena. In the middle of discussing Greek constellations, Aratus refers to the Maiden, who he ...

• Erol Critical Abstract — Musical Question

  Erol, Merih, “The ‘Musical Question’ and the Educated Elite of the Greek Orthodox Society in Late Nineteenth-century Constantinople,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 32 (2014): 133–163.

  In this article, Erol demonstrates various complex “positions and discourses” (133) of cultural identity in the Greek Orthodox ...

• Erol Critical Abstract — Musicological Debates

  Erol, Merih. “Musicological Debates between Greeks and Turks in the Late Ottoman Empire.” In Celebration, Entertainment and Theatre in the Ottoman World, edited by Suraiya Faroqhi and Arzu Öztürkmen. London: Seagull Books, 2014.

  In this chapter, Erol continues her investigation of musicological literature in ...

• Erol Critical Abstract — Music and the Nation

  Erol, Merih. “Music and the Nation in Greek and Turkish Contexts (19th – early 20th c.): A Paradigm of Cultural Transfers.” Zeitschrift Für Balkanologie 47, no. 2 (2011): 165–75.

  In this article, Erol adopts a comparative approach to Ottoman music culture in order to ...

• Doerfler Critical Abstract

  Doerfler, Maria. “Holy Households.” In Melania: Early Christianity through the Life of One Family, edited by Catherine Chin and Caroline Schroeder, 71–85. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.

  Doerfler begins in medias res, by analyzing an episode from the Vita Melaniae Iunioris. When a ...

• Cribiore Critical Abstract

  Cribiore, Raffaella. “The Education of Orphans: A Reassessment of the Evidence of Libanius.” In Growing Up Fatherless in Antiquity, edited by Sabine Hübner and David Ratzan, 257–72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  In this article, Cribiore investigates “the influence of an orphan state on ...

• Clark Critical Abstract

  Clark, Elizabeth. “Antifamilial Tendencies in Ancient Christianity.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 5, no. 3 (1995): 356–80.

  In this article, Clark traces the “ideology of antifamilialism” (358) in Christian antiquity. She draws on a variety of sources to parse the argumentative and interpretive ...

• Brown Critical Abstract

  Brown, Amelia. “Psalmody and Socrates: Female Literacy in the Byzantine Empire.” In Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society, edited by Bronwen Neil and Lynda Garland, 57–76. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.

  In this paper, Brown investigates the presence and importance of literate women in the Byzantine Empire. ...

• Bril Critical Abstract

  Bril, Alexander. “Plato and the Sympotic Form in the Symposium of St Methodius of Olympus.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 9, no. 2 (2006): 279–302.

  In this article, Bril examines Methodius’ Symposium in light of the Platonic work it imitates. While Plato’s theme is eros, ...

• Barry Critical Abstract

  Barry, Jennifer. “Diagnosing Heresy: Ps.-Martyrius’s Funerary Speech for John Chrysostom.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 24, no. 3 (2016): 395–418.

  In this article, Barry examines the Funerary Speech for John Chrysostom by Pseudo-Martyrius. She argues that Ps.-Martyrius uses medical language to make the case ...

• Barrett Critical Abstract

  Barrett, Richard. “Byzantine Chant, Authenticity and Identity: Musicological Historiography through the Eyes of Folklore.” Greek Orthodox Theological Review 55, no. 1–4 (2010): 181–98.

  In this paper, Barrett contributes to the discussion of Byzantine music and its relationships with identity, nationalism, and politics. He approaches ...