Charming cadavers : horrific figurations of the feminine in Indian Buddhist hagiographic literature
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Charming cadavers : horrific figurations of the feminine in Indian Buddhist hagiographic literature
(Women in culture and society : a series / edited by Catharine R. Stimpson)
University of Chicago Press, 1996
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780226900537
Description
In this study of sexuality, desire, the body, and women, Liz Wilson investigates first-millennium Buddhist notions of spirituality. She argues that despite the marginal role women played in monastic life, they occupied a very conspicuous place in Buddhist hagiographic literature. In narratives used for the edification of Buddhist monks, women's bodies in decay (diseased, dying, and after death) served as a central object for meditation, inspiring spiritual growth through sexual abstention and repulsion in the immediate world. Taking up a set of universal concerns connected with the representation of women, Wilson displays the pervasiveness of an drocentrism in Buddhist literature and practice.
Table of Contents
Foreword Catharine R. Stimpson Preface Note on Terminology Introduction 1: Celibacy and the Social World 2: "Like a Boil with Nine Openings": Buddhist Constructions of the Body and Their South Asian Milieu 3: False Advertising Exposed: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Pali Hagiography 4: Lead Us Now into Temptation: Countering Samsaric Duplicity with Dharmic Deceptions 5: Seeing Through the Gendered "I": The Nun's Story Conclusion Appendix: The Post-Asokan Milieu Notes Selected Bibliography Index
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780226900544
Description
In this study of sexuality, desire, the body, and women, Liz Wilson investigates first-millennium Buddhist notions of spirituality. She argues that despite the marginal role women played in monastic life, they occupied a very conspicuous place in Buddhist hagiographic literature. In narratives used for the edification of Buddhist monks, women's bodies in decay (diseased, dying, and after death) served as a central object for meditation, inspiring spiritual growth through sexual abstention and repulsion in the immediate world. Taking up a set of universal concerns connected with the representation of women, Wilson displays the pervasiveness of an drocentrism in Buddhist literature and practice.
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