Torture, Truth, and the Witnessing Body: Reading Christian Martyrdom with Page duBoisâ©
In: Biblical InterpretationSearch for other papers by Virginia Burrus in
Current site
Google Scholar
Taking its departure from Page duBoisâ monograph Torture and Truth, this essay points toward a gap in the history conveyed by duBois, yet hinted at by the painting reproduced on the bookâs cover â Nicolas Poussinâs âMartyrdom of Saint Erasmusâ (1629). DuBois relates classical Greek juridical practices, in which the tortured slave body is the site of the production of truth, to the subsequent history of Western philosophy, of which Heidegger is a privileged exemplum. This essay in turn inserts a history of Christian martyrdom (both early modern and ancient) into that narrative. The tight linking of truth with torture persists in martyrdom texts (including the Gospels), and the juridical context highlighted by duBois remains decisive for their interpretation. So too does the context of Roman imperial rule, together with the public spectacles of violence through which imperial power was performed. However, whereas classical Greek practice frames the slave as the passive container of a truth that another can claim, the ideology of Christian martyrdom assigns truth to the tortured subject herself. The legacy of martyrdom may explain the ease with which some today all too easily disavow complicity with torture to the point of denying that it continues, while also all too easily laying claim to the authority of suffering truth. It may illumine, as well, the limits of tortureâs power and the potential sources of its subversion and critique.â©
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
2
âSee Richard Verdi, Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665 (London: Zwemmer, 1995), pp. 165-66.
-
7
âSimon Ditchfield, âThinking with Saints: Sanctity and Society in the Early Modern World,â Critical Inquiry 35 (2009), pp. 552-84 (570-71).
-
21
âKate Cooper, âThe Voice of the Victim: Gender, Representation and Early Christian Martyrdom,â BJRL 80.3 (1998), pp. 147-57 (148).
-
28
âJennifer A. Glancy, âTorture: Flesh, Truth, and the Fourth Gospel,â BibInt 13 (2005), pp. 107-136.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 776 | 123 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 356 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 205 | 8 | 0 |
Torture, Truth, and the Witnessing Body: Reading Christian Martyrdom with Page duBoisâ©
In: Biblical InterpretationSearch for other papers by Virginia Burrus in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Taking its departure from Page duBoisâ monograph Torture and Truth, this essay points toward a gap in the history conveyed by duBois, yet hinted at by the painting reproduced on the bookâs cover â Nicolas Poussinâs âMartyrdom of Saint Erasmusâ (1629). DuBois relates classical Greek juridical practices, in which the tortured slave body is the site of the production of truth, to the subsequent history of Western philosophy, of which Heidegger is a privileged exemplum. This essay in turn inserts a history of Christian martyrdom (both early modern and ancient) into that narrative. The tight linking of truth with torture persists in martyrdom texts (including the Gospels), and the juridical context highlighted by duBois remains decisive for their interpretation. So too does the context of Roman imperial rule, together with the public spectacles of violence through which imperial power was performed. However, whereas classical Greek practice frames the slave as the passive container of a truth that another can claim, the ideology of Christian martyrdom assigns truth to the tortured subject herself. The legacy of martyrdom may explain the ease with which some today all too easily disavow complicity with torture to the point of denying that it continues, while also all too easily laying claim to the authority of suffering truth. It may illumine, as well, the limits of tortureâs power and the potential sources of its subversion and critique.â©
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 776 | 123 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 356 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 205 | 8 | 0 |
