Eleanor Glendinning

Contact

• workArchaeology and Classics Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 951 4800
• fax0115 951 4811
• abxerg1@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Summary

My research stems from an interest in representations and perceptions of women and gender in Roman culture and society. My thesis examines how and why female suicides are portrayed in a variety of… read more

Current Research

My research stems from an interest in representations and perceptions of women and gender in Roman culture and society. My thesis examines how and why female suicides are portrayed in a variety of literary genres, including history, biography, epic, elegy and drama. The social and political climate of the time had a great impact on how authors utilised and explored the theme of female suicide, which as a very ambivalent subject could be used to make a political statement against a tyrannical ruler, or reflect on new social or government policies.

Therefore, the thesis will address such questions as: why did authors portray women as having to commit such an act, was it a form of political resistance? Was it a bad sign that women were committing suicide like their male counterparts? Did this empower the women? Did they assume male attributes when they killed themselves? Could even the most immoral women redeem themselves through this act? The period focused on is the late Republic and early Principate, as well as late antiquity when a new type of female suicide presented itself in the form of religious martyrs; did these women represent a similar form of resistance to an authoritarian regime as their predecessors?

The thesis will also examine the reception of Roman female suicides in areas such as renaissance art, early modern drama and 20th century feminist scholarship.