RT info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
T1 Mary Magdalene, beata peccatrix, castissima meretrix: Eroticization in Western Culture
A1 Martín Mozo, Rebeca
A2 Universidad de Valladolid. Escuela de Doctorado
K1 Literatura - Análisis
K1 MarÍa Magdalena, Santa
K1 women's representation
K1 Mujer - representación
K1 Popular culture
K1 Cultura popular
K1 Literatura
K1 6202.02 Análisis Literario
AB This PhD dissertation analyzes the evolution of the eroticization of Mary Magdalene in her cultural representations from the Middle Ages to the present in the West. The character that we have inherited barely resembles the one called Mary Magdalene in the canonical and apocryphal gospels. Still, her cultural impact is undeniable. While most contemporary readings of the erotic Magdalene are built on Renaissance depictions of the saint, in this dissertation I argue that the Middle Ages served as the starting point for such an image.Through analysis of literary, artistic, and filmic works, I explore Magdalenian representations from a feminist perspective and in relation to their production contexts to trace the origins of the saint’s eroticization and its evolution amid historical, socioeconomic, religious, and cultural changes. Mary Magdalene has been linked to sex since early exegesis, an association that was cemented by Pope Gregory the Great in 591. Since then, her figure has been conflated with redeemed sex worker Mary of Egypt, which contributed to the image of the Magdalene as a penitent prostitute. Western cultural production has depicted her as a naked penitent, repenting from her sins, or as a shameless sinner, with representations increasingly explicit from the Renaissance until early twentieth century. Contemporary portrayals of the saint have been heavily influenced by the rediscovery and publication of the Nag Hammadi scrolls and other apocrypha in the first few decades of the twentieth century. With organized religion losing its influence on society, culture has reflected these changes through more diverse depictions of the Magdalene, from a sexual object used to tempt Jesus to a spiritual leader for whom sexuality and spirituality are not at odds. However, the new understandings of the Magdalene have not fully reached the general public, who still views her as “the prostitute” form the Bible.I hope that my analysis of Mary Magdalene will contribute to the ever-increasing literature on the saint by providing a more solid insight into the cultural and aesthetic aspects involved in the eroticization of her image.
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/80033
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/80033
LA eng
NO Escuela de Doctorado
DS UVaDOC
RD 29-nov-2025