Elisabeth of Schönau: Visions and Female Intellectual Culture of the High Middle Ages

URI / Handle

Elisabeth of Schönau (1128/29-1164/65) was a Rhineland Benedictine who wrote numerous visionary texts. These works addressed local problems in the cloister and community, reform within the Church, and theological questions. Elisabeth's writings were extremely popular among her contemporaries, circulating throughout Western Europe in the twelfth century. While scholars have studied Elisabeth, it has usually been within the context of her spirituality and how it reflected distinct feminine interests. This thesis, however, provides an analysis of Elisabeth's works in the context of the proliferation of school culture and reform movements in the twelfth century. Through a close analysis of her entire corpus of works, I demonstrate how Elisabeth's texts promote a clear reform program, engaging with literary formats popular among the intellectual elite. Elisabeth's works pursued a reform agenda through their emphasis on formation within the cloister and pastoral leadership, promoting these concerns as part of her answers to theological and spiritual questions that she received from members of religious communities. In this way, Elisabeth's texts also provided a response to those critical of her engagement with theological and spiritual issues in the public sphere. Entering into dialogues with her angelic guide and other heavenly interlocutors, Elisabeth provided an oral and aural visionary experience to her audience. This format represents a break with the previous conventions associated with the visionary genre. Elisabeth's re-conceptualization of her visions as conversations addressed an audience that was becoming more accustomed to public disputation within intellectual culture. In this way, Elisabeth's texts helps us to understand better the interaction between the worlds of the schools and the cloister in the twelfth century, as both engaged with oral discourse as a means to solve theological and spiritual questions.
Details
Title

Elisabeth of Schönau: Visions and Female Intellectual Culture of the High Middle Ages

Contributors

Jansen, Katherine L (Advisor); Spalding, Sarah Marie (Author); Davis, Jennifer (Other); Wright, Stephen (Other); Bornholdt, Claudia (Other)

Degree Information

Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America

Extent

228 p.

URI / Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/1961/14904

Advisor

Jansen, Katherine L

Other

Davis, Jennifer; Wright, Stephen; Bornholdt, Claudia

Subject

History; Gender studies; Religion; clerical; dialogue; German; heresy; reform; women

Accessioned

2013-06-25T14:59:14Z

Available

2013-06-25T14:59:14Z

Created

2013-01-01T00:00:00Z

Issued

2013-06-25T00:00:00Z

Abstract

Elisabeth of Schönau (1128/29-1164/65) was a Rhineland Benedictine who wrote numerous visionary texts. These works addressed local problems in the cloister and community, reform within the Church, and theological questions. Elisabeth's writings were extremely popular among her contemporaries, circulating throughout Western Europe in the twelfth century. While scholars have studied Elisabeth, it has usually been within the context of her spirituality and how it reflected distinct feminine interests. This thesis, however, provides an analysis of Elisabeth's works in the context of the proliferation of school culture and reform movements in the twelfth century. Through a close analysis of her entire corpus of works, I demonstrate how Elisabeth's texts promote a clear reform program, engaging with literary formats popular among the intellectual elite. Elisabeth's works pursued a reform agenda through their emphasis on formation within the cloister and pastoral leadership, promoting these concerns as part of her answers to theological and spiritual questions that she received from members of religious communities. In this way, Elisabeth's texts also provided a response to those critical of her engagement with theological and spiritual issues in the public sphere. Entering into dialogues with her angelic guide and other heavenly interlocutors, Elisabeth provided an oral and aural visionary experience to her audience. This format represents a break with the previous conventions associated with the visionary genre. Elisabeth's re-conceptualization of her visions as conversations addressed an audience that was becoming more accustomed to public disputation within intellectual culture. In this way, Elisabeth's texts helps us to understand better the interaction between the worlds of the schools and the cloister in the twelfth century, as both engaged with oral discourse as a means to solve theological and spiritual questions.

Type

Text; Dissertation

Local

Spalding_cua_0043A_10411

Publisher

The Catholic University of America

Publish Date

2013-06-25

Stats

Viewed 135 times
Downloaded 29 times

Downloads

Download