Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-143).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-143).

Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century German Catholic nun, became one of the most influential voices in a time when women, especially in the realm of religion, were suppressed. Yet, Hildegard overcame these suppressions through her writing and work subsequently legitimizing her status today as a saint and Doctor of the Church. Hildegard’s influential writings hold weight beyond the Catholic Church especially in feminist circles. This thesis applies rhetorical criticism as the scholarly lens from which to analyze a sample of Hildegard’s writings for the purposes of understanding her contemporary influence. Aided by Kenneth Burke’s interpretive method of logology, this project argues that Hildegard’s legacy is shaped by her consistent use of the “marriage to God” metaphor. The “marriage to God” metaphor functions persuasively, I argue, because its prophetic vision emphasizes a union with God, rather than as a disenfranchisement from God.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008.

Aquí me interesa ingresar al estudio de la voz, escritura e imagen de una mujer del siglo XII, en el Occidente medieval. La revisión de su obra, posiblemente en lo más original de su creación, esto es, sus escritos basados en un particular modo de decir y de enunciar desde lo divino, a partir de una experiencia visionaria, que algunos estudios llaman escritura de revelación o profética, será nuestro cuerpo de estudio. También su obra poético-musical de carácter lírico y su Vita, (biografía que contiene relatos autobiográficos). Éstas y aquellas me permiten plantear la posibilidad de estudio de una trama discursiva, en torno a la historia, a partir de la cual es posible distinguir dispositivos morfológicos para su enunciación, particularmente, algunos referentes simbólicos, figurativos y metafóricos.

Hildegard On Rubble Mountain is a cinema verité documentary about Hildegard Modinger's childhood. She grew up in Stuttgart, Germany during World War II and immigrated to the United States at the age of nineteen. This video follows her back to her childhood neighborhood as she recalls memories of that time in her life. The accompanying production book explains the production process: preproduction, production, postproduction, theoretical approaches, style used and a self-evaluation.

Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss.

Zusammengestellt 2007 durch Christian Leutemann.

In her fourth letter to Abelard, Heloise asks the question, "Oh what will become of us obedient ones?" The question presents a paradox. By putting her question in writing, Heloise violates the code of silence imposed on medieval women. The medieval church and the literate aristocracy agreed with Sophocles and Aristotle: silence is the adornment of women. Gender roles in medieval society were unambiguous. Men, by nature, belonged in the public, political arena where they directed the affairs of the world, in part, by thinking, speaking, and writing. Obedient to male authority, a woman's natural place was in the private, domestic domain where she was expected to perform the duties of daughter, sister, wife, and mother in muted obscurity. In spite of these restrictions, a few women put pen to parchment during the Middle Ages. This thesis examines the writing of three of these women, Perpetua, Dhuoda, and Hildegard of Bingen. Like Heloise, they considered themselves obedient even though they created texts in which they made their ideas and experiences available to readers in the male-dominated public discourse community. Research indicates that, because they were born into upperclass families, Perpetua, Dhuoda, and Hildegard probably enjoyed an education comparable to that of upperclass men. Although the curriculum available to each of these women included reading and writing Latin, researchers agree that writing was not considered an appropriate activity for medieval women. In addition to the cultural belief that good women were obedient and silent, it was also assumed that women were intellectually inferior to men and therefore not equipped to be competent writers. Research into theories about the process of thinking and writing has demonstrated that once such cultural assumptions are embedded in the human meaning-making system they are rarely questioned. These assumptions are perpetuated because the process of defining experience and developing ideas involves recombining patterns and metaphors provided by other writers and thinkers who usually share these beliefs. Perpetua's, Dhuoda's, and Hildegard's texts indicate that they accepted these cultural assumptions about women and did not question the fact that patterns and metaphors created by female writers were not available to them. Nevertheless, it is evident throughout the writing of all three women that they possessed genius and skill equal to that of men with similar intellectual gifts and educational opportunities. Yet the texts written by these women are often dismissed as less significant than texts written by men. Further research in rhetorical theory led to the realization that Perpetua, Dhuoda, and Hildegard have often been considered inferior writers, not because they were, but because the reader knows that he or she is reading a text written by a woman. Readers of these texts traditionally have assumed that these authors were obedient because they accepted their subservient position to men and the belief that women were, by nature, less intelligent and capable than men. This has led to the assumption that if the author acknowledges her inferiority she must indeed be a less competent artist than her male counterparts. Such readings have resulted in assessments of theses texts that ignore the complexity, art and significance of the work. This thesis demonstrates that the reader willing to suspend these assumptions in the process of reading Perpetua, Dhuoda, and Hildegard may find writing that is anything but the work of obedient, submissive women. He or she may also find authors whose thinking and writing skills equal those of male writers and whose opinions, observations, and experiences are more than marginal glosses on their historical context

Hildegard alleged a spiritual connection with the physical world in her claim that she, a woman, was chosen by God to incarnate His Word on earth as Christ had done in the flesh years before. Woman, the embodiment of the feminine, was connected to the physical world in the medieval era. It was with this idea in mind that Hildegard attached an important significance to nature and the Virgin, seeing each as the ultimate expressions of the feminine divine on earth. However, included in the incarnation, according to Hildegard, was the Church itself along with the clergy, both men and women. In earth, in mankind, in all of nature, she saw a dimension of God, a dimension that found its expression uniquely in the world yet paralleled the God beyond this world. Using Hildegard's letters in German translation, I will show how, in a patriarchal world of the 12th century, Hildegard emphasized the feminine as salvific as a means to establish a balance in the world, a balance that had been offset by the corrupt behavior of Church and State. I will preface this with a brief discussion of the era (p. 6). In Chapter II, I will focus first on how Hildegard saw the feminine manifested in the world and how, for various purposes, she expressed it in her letters. Secondly in Chapter II, by citing further examples in her letter, I will concentrate on how she saw a lack of feminine expression in the world and how she viewed the negative result of this lack. Finally in Chapter IV, I will show how she achieved the expression of this balance. In concluding my paper, I will consider whether she was successful in her efforts: Did she achieve, from others as well as from herself, the balance she sought or were her efforts in vain?