Figuring Modesty in Feminist Discourse Across the Americas, 1633–1700 by Tamara Harvey

Abstract

Langlands's study is based around a single word, pudicitia (commonly translated as chastity), unpicking the Roman term's social/political, public/private and male/female aspects. From the outset, Langlands emphasises that pudicitia is not a gender-specific concept: her treatment of gender and gender boundaries is therefore particularly noteworthy. She argues for a schism between body and soul -so Lucretia has a man's soul trapped in a woman's body, while Plotina and Charite must be completely unsexed in order to maintain their pudicitia. Where Lucretia and Verginia provide the main axes for her discussion of women, her analysis of men ranges further, covering both imperial and republican examples, and both emperors and private citizens. She explains with great clarity how an individual can be accused of being a man among women, or too feminine among men, with full consistency, based through a non-gendered, statuscentred reading of pudicitia. This is set against stuprum, that is whatever damages pudicitia.Langlands opens chapter one with an examination of the performative aspects of pudicitia, elaborating on how the boundary between private virtue and the public display of that virtue was negotiated. This sets up a realistic scheme for the rest of the book, demonstrating methods a literary critic and cultural historian can employ to excavate anything of the ancient world without remaining paralysingly agnostic. Other chapters focus on Livy (2), Valerius Maximus (3), controversia and Seneca (5), Cicero (6) and Tacitus alongside Suetonius (7). The conclusion is short, reiterating Langlands's main argument that pudicitia remains a remarkably elusive concept, yet one which provides us with a window through which to observe the underside of the whole fabric of Roman society. This conclusion thus integrates the apparent discrepancy between the very general title and the very specific concept under scrutiny. As a book about an abstract concept, it could easily have become too theoretical, but Langlands avoids this. Her case studies of Lucretia, clear interest in Valerius Maximus and investigation of the nature of exempla provide different routes through the book. Consequently the book provides a valuable source of material and discussion for a wide range of audiences. It leads the reader clearly and carefully through all the texts. Langlands's style is C 2010 Blackwell Publishing