BODYSELF: WOMEN'S BODILY EXPERIENCE IN RECENT FEMINIST THEOLOGY AND WOMEN'S LITERATURE (DUALISM, AMERICAN)

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the significance of body and the integrated bodyself emerged as a central theme from both American feminist theology and women's literature. Both theologians and writers have described the negative effects of body-soul and sexist dualisms on women's identity. Both have offered strategies for moving beyond dualistic categories toward a more complex appreciation of women's body experience and the nature of human embodiment.; The dissertation has two parts. The first half examines the treatment of body in the works of major feminist theologians--Rosemary Ruether, Sheila Collins, James Nelson, Tom Driver, Judith Plaskow, Carol Christ, Mary Daly, Noami Goldenberg, and Penelope Washbourn--analyzing their distinctive contributions to an understanding of body and noting points of disagreement or dialogue. While they differ in emphasis, most theologians agree that a redefinition of women's body experience is crucial for women to value themselves as full participants in society. Some emphasize the study of concrete body experience as a strategy to overcome dualism. Some point to connections between the despised body and oppressive social and economic relationships. Others focus on new language, mythic patterns, and metaphor or explore the use of dreams and stories as resources to move beyond dualism.; The second half examines works of American women writers--Edith Sommers Kelley, Tillie Olsen, Mary Gordon, Alice Walker, Gail Godwin, and Toni Morrison--noting the treatment of body and pointing out where they illustrate or embody themes and approaches suggested by the theologians. The comparison indicates a strong kinship between writers and theologians and demonstrates why many feminist theologians have turned to women's literary works as important sources for theological reflection.; In both groups of writers, the integrated bodyself becomes the focus for a cluster of values and themes associated with women's spirituality: the importance of human relatedness, the reordering of male and female relationships, the recovery of women's connections to their history and to female community, the freeing of creative powers, pleasure in sensuality and a new appreciation of the meaning of human embodiedness.