Charming Cadavers
Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature
Format:Hardback
Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
Published:26th Nov '96
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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.
ISBN: 9780226900537
Dimensions: 23mm x 15mm x 2mm
Weight: 510g
276 pages