RT Article
T1 Negotiable Currencies: Hildegard of Bingen, Mysticism and the Vagaries of the Theoretical
JF Feminist theology
VO 11
IS 3
SP 375
OP 384
A1 Jones, Sharon
A2 Neal, Diana 1946-
LA English
YR 2003
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1776892968
AB This article argues that, of the leading Continental feminist theorists who have expressed an interest in women's mysticism, most have inadvertently or otherwise taken up the theoretical model of William James, the early-twentieth-century scholar of religion. In particular, Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray have accepted the view that mysticism operates on an epistemological plane divorced from the categories of rationality and intelligibility. Both thinkers hold that the mystic is typically hysterical, although Irigaray takes a more positive view of the hysteric as a subject position from which the feminine voice is first heard. Through a brief examination of the mystical and political careers of Hildegard of Bingen, we conclude that the theoretical perspective of Julia Kristeva provides a more useful theoretical perspective from which to analyse women's mystical texts.
DO 10.1177/096673500301100310