Imaginaire(s) du corps dans le monachisme orthodoxe
Imaginary (s) of the body in orthodox monasticism

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we aim to analyse the discursive marks of some collective imaginations that function with respect to the body, its role, its efforts and its asceticism within Orthodox monasticism. We will refer especially to a book of monastic spirituality written by archimandrite Placide Deseille, entitled Le monachisme orthodoxe (Deseille, 2013); we will try to analyze the lexicon that explains the (discursive) construction and the functioning of a “normative” collective imagination concerning the body, “prescribed” very discreetly by the Fathers of the Church and some monastic authors that wrote about the significance and the role of bodily asceticism in monastic life. We will study some words and lexical phrases that have the value of a lexical core for the construction of these collective imaginations, such as: « exercices corporels [bodily exercise] », « labeur corporel [bodily labour] », « mortification corporelle [bodily mortification] », « labeurs ascétiques [ascetic labour] », « ascèse [asceticism] », employed in the French literature of monastic spirituality.

• Details
• Contents