The Gendered Palimpsest: Women, Writing, and Representation in Early Christianity. By KIM HAINES-EITZEN.

Abstract

This book is on how books were produced, rewritten, and reinterpreted in the early Christian period and how books and especially textual variants highlight disputes concerning women. Haines-Eitzen organized her book into two parts, each consisting of three chapters. In Part I, chapter 1 is on the relationship between women and book production, transmission, and consumption; chapter 2 is on the figure of women readers in ascetic literature; in chapter 3, Haines-Eitzen argues against the accepted view that the Apocryphal Acts are women’s literature. In Part II, chapter 4 is about the sexual/textual politics of rewriting and reinterpretation; chapter 5 is on the textual variants of The Acts of Paul and Thecla and how these highlight the discussion points that concerned authors and scribes; finally, chapter 6 is on ascetic paradoxes in the Apocryphal Acts. Haines-Eitzen describes the four roles that women played in relation to books in the early Christian period, namely, authors, scribes, book-lenders, and patrons. She lists women in each category, and describes women’s roles related to books, and the problematic aspects of her candidates’ roles. Her lists are comprehensive, and they give a good overview of women’s roles in book production, transmission, and consumption in the early Christian period.