Gender Fluidity and Closure in Perpetua’s Prison Diary

Abstract

Perpetua’s Passio, a prison diary or narrative, tells the remarkable story of a young Roman Christian woman awaiting martyrdom in the arena in Carthage. This article focuses on the gender ambiguities and fluctuations in the Passio, both in language and in narrative structure. With a particular focus on Perpetua’s fourth vision, in which she “becomes male” (masculus), the article explores the gendered language of the text, the implications of Perpetua’s brief transformation into a male body, the different gender choices made by Perpetua and by her editor, and the role that gender plays as a structuring narratological device.