IMC 2009: Sessions
Session 1512: Permeable Boundaries?: Questioning Enclosure, I
Thursday 16 July 2009, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | Agfem - Arbeitskreis geistliche Frauen im europäischen Mittelalter |
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| Organiser: | Gisela Muschiol, Institut für Kirchengeschichte, Universitat Bonn |
| Moderator/Chair: | Alison Beach, Abteilung Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Universität Trier |
| Paper 1512-a | Hidden Faces: Conventual and Observant Dominicans and their Concept of Enclosure (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1512-b | Rules and Exceptions: Noble Women and the Practice of Claustration (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1512-c | Open Houses: Sisters beyond Claustration (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | When studying female monasticism at the Middle Ages, it is inevitable to explore the concept of enclosure and the extent to which is was actually fulfilled. Claustration, requested, established, and affirmed by male authorities, was negotiated, adjusted, and even circumvented by the nuns themselves, for reasons of economic necessity as well as for personal desires. These two sessions bring together American and German scholars who have studied different aspects of female monasticism across the Middle Ages. At one stage during their research, they questioned the concept of enclosure as presented by male church authorities and, in some cases, in male scholarship, and intend to present a critical view of enclosure, detecting several contradictions between claims and assertions and actual practice in daily life. |