Publication details
"St. Elisabeth of Schönau and Actor
-Network Theory: The Flow of the Power within one Text"
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Original title: | "St. Elisabeth of Schönau and Actor -Network Theory: The Flow of the Power within one Text" |
| Author: | Andrea Beláňová |
| Further information | |
|---|---|
| Citation: | BELÁŇOVÁ, Andrea. "St. Elisabeth of Schönau and Actor -Network
Theory: The Flow of the Power within one Text" ("St. Elisabeth
of Schönau and Actor -Network Theory: The Flow of the Power
within one Text"). In Past, present, and future in the
scientific study of religion, Brno, 1 -3 March 2012. 2012.Export BibTeX |
| Original language: | English |
| Field: | Philosophy and religion |
| Type: | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Keywords: | Elisabeth of Schönau; actor -network theory; Brunou Latour; textual analysis |
The paper is based on a textual analysis of the work of the medieval saint and mystic, Elisabeth of Schönau. This work could be described as a compilation of texts, including Elisabeth's visions transcribed by her brother Egbert, Egbert's and Elisabeth's reflections of the life in a monastery community, and the collection of letters. As the work is very interesting from various points of view it has been studied deeply, primarily from the gender perspective. Thus the ambition of my research was different. It calls for a new approach strongly inspired by the sociological program known as "Actor-Network Theory" (ANT). This methodological inspiration could be most seen in the polemics with already published research on the same theme. On the basis of precise inner analysis of the texts I argue that the definitions of some commonly used categories (here: power, gender boundaries) must be found in the material itself and not to be prepared by the researcher before the start of the analysis.











