PERPETUA

Close reading of a martyr’s tale.

Scholar and translator Ruden offers her observations—as well as her own translation—of a classic early Christian text, The Suffering of the Holy Perpetua and Felicitas. Perpetua and Felicitas, or Felicity, were young Christians, both mothers to infants, who were executed by Rome in a public spectacle for their refusal to recant their faith. Their story is recounted by Perpetua herself, in a short document that was soon after augmented by an editor/redactor. Ruden approaches the story of Perpetua with reverence, but primarily with the eye of a scholar. Her treatment is far from a hagiography or even a work of Christian history but instead serves as a close literary examination of this ancient text. Perpetua is seen as a truncated, overlooked, and even exploited female author, her own account, riveting and meaningful on its own, touched up, added to, and misused by others over time. “In forty years of studying ancient literature,” Ruden notes, “I have never seen an author so openly shoved to the side, shushed, and interrupted.” Ruden’s efforts seem aimed to clarify Perpetua’s role in the eyes of fellow academics. She exposes those forces in the church and in culture who have misrepresented and misused Perpetua (Augustine of Hippo is an example), while also diving headlong into a level of literary analysis that the lay reader may find unhelpful. A page and a half devoted to Perpetua’s use of the word ego (“I”), in reference to herself, is an example. Ruden notes in conclusion that “it is high time to move [Perpetua’s] story into the brighter light she powerfully deserves.” Ruden’s treatment does not, unfortunately, move Perpetua into that brighter light for the average reader.

A worthy addition to scholarship; a lackluster approach for the non-specialist reader.