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Total St Gall: Medieval Monastery as a Disciplinary Institution
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of History. (Centrum för medeltidsstudier, Centre for Medieval Studies)
2010 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

How much was a medieval monastery reminiscent of a modern prison? Or insane asylum? And if it was in the least - what can such a metaphor tell us about power relations structuring the life of medieval monks?

The purpose of this compilation thesis (sammanläggningsavhandling) is to render explicit and analyze relations of power and modes of control comprising the social tissue of early medieval Benedictine monasteries. By bringing up the examples of tenth- and eleventh-century monasteries of St Gall, Fulda, and Bury St Edmunds, this thesis seeks to understand what power was in medieval monasteries, how and between whom it was exercised, what and how it affected in terms of collective and individual identity.

The thesis consists of three introductory chapters, four previously published empirical articles, and a concluding remarks section. Article 1 investigates the problem of surveillance and patterns of social control dispersed in the monastery of St Gall. Article 2 studies the early and high medieval institutional expectations and means of enforcement of the monk’s role. Article 3 scrutinizes an example of a persecution process and a set of defense measures in the hands of the St Gall community warding off an unwanted visitor. Article 4 examines a number of internal monastic conflicts from several monasteries and strategies, both political and cognitive, guiding them.

In investigating these problems, the thesis proceeds in a manner of deliberate anachronism. It asks questions about how human subjectivity was manufactured in early medieval St Gall, what were a medieval monastery’s ‘conditions of possibility’ to operate as a social regime, or oral and literary means of conflict management etc. The crucial modern social theories on which the thesis hinges are: Erving Goffman’s notion of ‘total institution’, and Michel Foucault’s analysis of power, as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s logic of action.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 2010. , p. 116
Series
Stockholm studies in history, ISSN 0491-0842 ; 92
Keywords [en]
‘total institution’, Casus sancti Galli, St Gall, Ekkehard IV, Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault, power relations, stigma, subjectivity, Benedictine monasticism, early Middle Ages, Asylums, monastery
National Category
Religious Studies Sociology
Research subject
History
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-43166Libris ID: 16193213ISBN: 978-91-86071-47-9 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-43166DiVA, id: diva2:354363
Public defence
2010-12-17, hörsal 7, hus D, Universitetsvägen 10 D, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2010-11-25 Created: 2010-10-01 Last updated: 2022-05-20Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Monasterium panopticum: On Surveillance in a Medieval Cloister - the Case of St. Gall
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Monasterium panopticum: On Surveillance in a Medieval Cloister - the Case of St. Gall
2006 (English)In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien, ISSN 0071-9706, E-ISSN 1613-0812, Vol. 40, p. 167-182Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article aims to explore the practice of surveillance of monks in the early medieval monasteries on the example of St. Gall as described in Ekkehard IV's . Based on Erving Goffman's concept of total institution the study presents the available disciplinary measures of social control. Discussing with the restrictive methods and absolute attitude towards supervision that emerge from the normative sources of that time it is argued that in the everyday monastic life uses and importance attached to the apparatus of surveillance were far more nuanced and adjustable to circumstances.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2006
Keywords
St Gall, surveillance, panopticon, monasticism, Michel Foucault
National Category
Religious Studies Social Anthropology
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-13316 (URN)978-3-11-018637-6 (ISBN)
Available from: 2008-03-17 Created: 2008-03-17 Last updated: 2022-02-25Bibliographically approved
2. Non similitudinem monachi, sed monachum ipsum!: An Investigation into the Monastic Category of the Person - the Case of St Gall
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Non similitudinem monachi, sed monachum ipsum!: An Investigation into the Monastic Category of the Person - the Case of St Gall
2008 (English)In: Scandia, ISSN 0036-5483, Vol. 74, no 1, p. 7-35Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Denna text undersöker personbegreppet och dess villkor i relation till äldre och högmedeltida munkar och abbotar på klostret Sankt Gallen (nuvarande Schweiz). Undersökningen är baserad på Ekkehard IV:s Casus sancti Galli (ca 1050), och en rad andra krönikor och dokument från den tiden. Huvudfrågan lyder: Hur och utifrån vilka positioner uppfattades och konstruerades en individ i en miljö där man endast fick spela en roll – munkens. Munkar och besökande personer behöll vissa delar av sina gamla identiteter och sociala anknytningar, trots den deklarerade separationen från yttervärlden. Detta hotade den institutionella integriteten. Texten visar vilka medel och metoder munkar hade att stöpa och göra om individer för att skapa tillit och bindande relationer på den interpersonella nivån. Abbotens roll diskuteras också som ett exempel på en person som spelade sin roll för två olika publiker – för den inom klostret och för den övriga världen – som krävde motsatta uppträdande.

En slutsats att dra från de analyserade exemplen är att en person inte alltid sågs som en enhetlig individ, utan dess gestalt var en brokig effekt av kompromisser och tryck komponerad av emellanåt uteslutande element. Den teoretiska basen för den delen av texten består av Erving Goffmans begrepp total institution, och rollbegreppet.

I andra delen av texten, baserad på Ian Hackings begrepp the human kinds, undersöks och presenteras den högmedeltida diskursen om munkar som en speciell art av människor samt skisseras dess utveckling från Sankt Benedikts Regula till högmedeltiden. Metodologiskt påstås att för att få en korrekt uppfattning av det medeltida personbegreppet i klostermiljön måste de två nivåerna kombineras – de abstrakta diskurserna, vilka diskuterade människans och munkens natur, och de intersubjektiva praktiker gällande dräkt, beteende, uttryck osv., som en materiell tillämpning av de allmänna beskrivningars regler och föreskrifter i vardagslivet.

Keywords
medieval monastery, category of the person, Ekkehard IV, total institution, Casus sancti Galli, Erving Goffman, Salomo Bishop of Constance
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-14560 (URN)000257342800002 ()
Available from: 2008-10-09 Created: 2008-10-09 Last updated: 2022-02-25Bibliographically approved
3. Paranoia sangallensis: A Micro-Study in the Etiquette of Monastic Persecution
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Paranoia sangallensis: A Micro-Study in the Etiquette of Monastic Persecution
2008 (English)In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien, ISSN 0071-9706, E-ISSN 1613-0812, Vol. 42, p. 147-168Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Can we use contemporary sociological models of exclusion of paranoiacs to account for the miscarried visitation of a monastic reformer in the tenth century? This article, by offering a thick description of an incident from Ekkehard IV’s 'Casus sancti Galli', explores early medieval mechanisms of social control and the collective manufacturing of scapegoats and deviants in the monastic milieu.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008
Keywords
Goffman, paranoia, persecution, medieval monasticism, St Gall, Ekkehart IV
National Category
Religious Studies Social Anthropology
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-31261 (URN)
Available from: 2009-11-09 Created: 2009-11-09 Last updated: 2022-03-03Bibliographically approved

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Jezierski, Wojtek

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