The Ambiguous Laughter of Saint Laurence

This essay uses contemporary theories of masculinity to read Prudentius' narrative of the martyrdom of St. Laurence (Peristephanon 2). We find that, far from being the site of a conventional glorification of martyrdom and Rome, this narrative contains many subversive elements which derive from the presentation of Laurence as ambiguously-gendered. The subversion is epitomized in the famous jest of Laurence as he lies roasting on the gridiron; but we see here how Prudentius' poem, and other lesser accounts of the same martyrdom, place this jest in a wider context of shifting masculinities, social critique, and antihegemonic hilarity.