CEU eTD Collection (2009); Burtea, Iolanda Florentina: Finding One's Way into God's Garden: Being a Romanian Orthodox Nun

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
Author Burtea, Iolanda Florentina
Title Finding One's Way into God's Garden: Being a Romanian Orthodox Nun
Summary This thesis explores women’s Orthodox monastic life in contemporary Romania. The analysis presents the results of a three weeks long field research based on qualitative methods in two monasteries. It focuses on three main aspects: the connections between the monastic setting and the outside world, nuns’ everyday routines and religious experiences. The first part of the thesis describes the impact of the external realm on monastic life and shows how nuns negotiate their interactions with the profane space. The second and third parts deal with the ways in which nuns’ subjectivities are reshaped inside the monastery. The main argument is that nuns evolve between two sets of binaries: inside (monastic setting)—outside (external world) and interior (spirit)—exterior (body). These become essential in considering some broader problematics: women and postsocialism, daily practices in monastic life and the importance of bodily disciplines and voluntary will in reshaping one’s subjectivity.
Supervisor Helms Elissa
Department Gender Studies MA
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/burtea_iolanda.pdf

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