Although the gender order of the Byzantine Empire (330–1453 CE) was largely patriarchal and heteronormative, late antique and Byzantine texts and images regularly reveal complex constructions of gender. Pronounced essentialisms coexisted with beliefs and practices defying simple binaries of male/masculine and female/feminine in often surprising ways. This course zeroes in on the entire spectrum of binary and non-binary conceptualizations, representations, and performances of gender in Byzantium by exploring textual and visual material alongside recent scholarship on gender and sexuality. Topics for discussion include normative concepts and representations of masculinity and femininity; asceticism and the gendered body; emotions and gender; same-sex desire and relationships (homosociality); cross-dressing (trans monks?); intersectionality (gender, race, and class); authorial (cis- and trans-) gender performance; eunuchs (a "third gender"?); incorporeal/genderless angels.
CLS-STDY 173