DFG-GRADUIERTENKOLLEG
"Wahrnehmung der Geschlechterdifferenz
in religiösen Symbolsystemen"
Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät der Universität Würzburg
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The interdisciplinary graduate seminar pursues an academic discussion of gender within the context of religion.
The term ‘gender difference’ seeks to express the divergent realities in which women and men participate, a difference which is a fundamental aspect of the human experience. The study of the constitutive meaning of the category gender has in recent years established itself as an interdisciplinary and international field of research in academic discourse, and has come to be known as gender studies.
An analysis of the interplay of power and dominance between women and men was the first issue to be emphasised in the development of this field of research. Since the 1990s, ‘gender difference’ has expanded to include aspects such as economic, ethnic, religious and sexual differences, thus more fully reflecting the complexity of social structures and people’s experiences of them. The present debate over difference is characterised by deconstructivist, psychoanalytic and essentialist approaches. The deconstructivist approach treats gender difference as the result of a cultural construction which is to be exposed and critically questioned (J. Butler, D. Haraway). From the psychoanalytic perspective, sexual relations are inherently impossible. Thus, gender difference is the expression of this impossibility, which rests on a fundamental psychological experience, a trauma which involves the relationship of the individual to the social order (J. Lacan, S. Zizek, J. Copejc). In the essentialist view, gender difference is understood as an ontological category that demonstrates the false neutrality of speech as it relates to the two genders. It places the duality of the genders at the beginning of any politic (Diotima, J. Kristeva, L. Irigaray). The graduate seminar reflects these competing tendencies in gender studies, tries to render them fruitful for each of the doctoral students and attempts to contribute independent gains in the understanding of differences and structures in matters of gender.
Religion is and always has been an important medium in which gender roles have been constituted, shaped and solidified. It also sees moments, however, in which established role models collapse or fall by the wayside. The seminar is concerned with religion in various spatial and chronological contexts, but does try to maintain selective focus.
The prehistoric and classical religions of Europe, as well as those of the Near East and Egypt, each of which influenced European cultural history and the Christian religion, serve as bases for discussion. Empirical approaches which treat contemporary religious forms and content and examine an increasing secularisation complete the spectrum.
The common ground on which discussion of these various religious phenomena occurs is the conception of religion as symbolic system. This term, the origins of which are found in culture theory, understands religion as historically transmitted complexes of meanings and conceptions which appear in symbolic form, and as such, make possible their communication and further development (C. Geertz). Symbol systems function in two directions: They represent reality and they shape it.
Since the term religious symbol system implies methodological diversity, i.e. can be integrated equally well into a deconstructivist, a psychoanalytic or an essentialist approach, rather varied points of departure are presented for discussion of gender studies as well as for the individual research projects of the members of the seminar.
The graduate seminar operates with these varied approaches within an interdisciplinary framework, which includes the analysis of quite varied sources, e.g. texts, visual material, archaeological finds and interviews. The wide spectrum of methodologies, which are intended to suit the individual objectives of the different research projects, is a characteristic of the seminar. Also taken into account, in addition to the various gender, religious and culture theories, are methodological approaches from, inter alia, cultural anthropology, post-colonial studies and literary studies. These complement the needs of the graduate seminar and attempt to keep apace of the rapidly evolving international discourse in gender studies and religion.
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