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Creating Gender and Spiritual Identity Through Ritual

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WOMEN’S PILGRIMAGE AS REPERTOIRIC PERFORMANCE: CREATING GENDER AND SPIRITUAL IDENTITY THROUGH RITUAL Vanessa G. Baker A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2010 Committee: Dr. Jonathan Chambers, Advisor Dr. Jane S. Rodgers Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Ronald E. Shields Dr. Scott Magelssen © 2010 Vanessa G. Baker All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Jonathan Chambers, Advisor Through the spiritual practice of contemporary spirituality, women pilgrims perform and constitute gendered and spiritual identities in ways that are often highly unorthodox. However, pilgrimage allows participants to re-see religious history, so as to legitimize their alternative identities. In this study, I sought to discover how pilgrims constituted their identities in new ways through pilgrimage. I considered three pilgrimages in particular: a Catholic pilgrimage to Rome in search of the history of women’s ordination, through which the pilgrims re-defined the meaning of bread-breaking and “priestliness”; a mother–daughter journey to Crete, through which the women created new gender roles for themselves as manifestations of the Goddess; and a woman’s experience in a temple in Malta, through which she took on the role of an ancient priestess incubating a healing dream. I analyzed how pilgrims’ performances “make meaning” in three ways. First, I turned to Diana Taylor’s ideas about the archive and the repertoire, and suggested that pilgrims frame their performances as legitimate spiritual practices by situating them within the “orthodoxy” of the archive. However, these pilgrims engage in “performances of challenge” through which they destabilize the archive’s claim to sole interpretive authority. Using the repertoire’s other “ways of knowing,” pilgrims remember or imagine the “past” and connect to their spiritual ancestors. Then, using Judith Butler’s suggestion that performances effectively constitute identity, I claimed that these pilgrims used ritual to constitute identities and knowledge that, although alternative, are not “false,” and which therefore expanded the range of “legitimate” identity performances available to spiritual women. Third, as ritualists such as Tom Driver have suggested, ritual performances are transformative and have the power to effect change. Because iv they work in a mode of “ritual paradox,” rituals can bring the ideal – the imagined past, pilgrims’ new identities, and the hoped-for future – into the present. As Driver suggested, these ritual performances lead naturally into performances in the “confessional” and “ethical” modes of performance, through which pilgrims claim new identities, challenge patriarchal systems, and work for continued, ongoing transformation of their church and world. v “The vision of a different world of justice makes us dreamers.” – Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza vi For my mother, Rebecca McGuire Baker my grandmothers, Julia Rosser McGuire and Marilyn Woolever Baker my beloved aunt, Charlotte Joy McGuire, in memory with love and gratitude for their lived examples of imago Dei For my sisters, Kati and Elizabeth in anticipation of the new paths we’ll seek out And for Liz, at the beginning vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to thank the many people whose continued support and thoughtful insights have helped me to write this study. First and foremost, my gratitude to Dr. Jonathan Chambers, who has been my advisor, teacher, director, and – throughout it all – my friend. My six years at Bowling Green have been transformative indeed, growing me up and giving me confidence, and Jonathan has been ready to listen, to challenge me to new heights, and to encourage me at every step. I will miss the coffee, the inspiring green chair, the ridiculous but undeniably good names for a band (just in case), and the marginal comments that made me laugh out loud. I look forward to the day when I will be half as strong and kind a teacher as you are. Thank you. Thanks, too, to my department chair, Dr. Ron Shields, who has offered me outstanding opportunities and responsibilities – most notably to direct Our Town – and has never let me take the easy way out. I first began to develop this project in Dr. Shields’s course on memory and theory, and I have appreciated his insightful comments as I have developed it since. Even before then, the seeds for this research were planted in Dr. Scott Magelssen’s course on performing history, and he has continued to encourage me in this endeavor and to reassure me that yes, this study is about performance – it is theatre – and it is important work. In a very real way, this dissertation would not exist without Scott. Thanks too for encouraging me as I explored historiography and learned to teach theatre history. I’m glad we’re friends. My committee would have been incomplete without Dr. Jane Rodgers, whose thoughtful suggestions and willingness to get excited about a topic so far outside her field of study have been greatly appreciated. viii As I have immersed myself in this work, I have been continually grateful to the pilgrims whose very personal narratives I have found so fruitful for study. Thanks to Tsultrim and Aloka Allione, Jo Carson, the FutureChurch pilgrims, and especially to Sister Chris Schenk for daring to perform themselves in such risky ways and for sharing their stories. I also appreciate the many scholars, theorists, theologians, ritualizers, and writers whose ideas I have borrowed and explored, including Diana Taylor, Judith Butler, Tom Driver, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Nicola Denzey, and Kathryn Rountree. In many ways great and small, my success has been dependent upon the help of others. The faculty and staff of the Department of Theatre and Film have encouraged and supported me for six outstanding years, and I am grateful to all of you. My thanks in particular to my graduate coordinator, Dr. Lesa Lockford, and to Louise Small and Val Whipple, whose continued support allowed me to finish my writing while away from campus. My time at Bowling Green was made complete because I could claim membership in a community of good friends and fellow travelers on this journey of academic transformation. Hope Bernard and Nicole Mancino led the way, and graciously shared their cover letters, introductions, and research – and, perhaps more importantly, their company, conversation, and good wine – whenever I asked. On the other side, in allowing me to figure out how to explain all of those sorts of things to her, Nicky Dutt has given me room to grow. I especially appreciate Nicky’s help in running copies and other errands for me after I moved out of town. I am also grateful for my other fellow students, who have helped me to develop these ideas and so many others. To Heather Williams, Season Ellison, Tim Schaeffer, Stephen Harrick, Rob Connick, Darin Kerr, J. L. Murdoch, Carl Walling, Ellen Rooney, and all the gang – thank you. ix My own students have also motivated and encouraged me to grow as a teacher; to think more carefully about the value of theatre, of creativity, and of risk-taking; and to love what I do. For this I am most grateful. I have also been fortunate enough to have had friends with whom I have found space to perform all parts of my identity holistically. My gratitude to Sara, Baxter, and Truman Chambers and to Theresa, Trygg, and Ari Magelssen, who have opened their homes and their hearts to me. Blessed be. My ideas about spirituality, and my ability to talk about it so thoughtfully, have been in large part shaped by my time spent at Peace Church. My great appreciation continues to my church family, and to Pastor Debbie Conklin; Dorinda, Nicole, and Patrick Contreras; and most of all to Sarah Carr and Cathryn Lucas, for being church with me. Peace be with you. I am also grateful to the Religion and Theatre focus group of ATHE, especially Jill Stevenson, John Sebestyen, and Claire Blackstock. These colleagues have encouraged me to pursue academic studies of spirituality and performance, and to recognize this work as valuable. A portion of this work in progress was first presented at ATHE in 2009, on a Religion and Theatre panel with Claire Blackstock and Nicky Dutt, and I am grateful for the feedback these two colleagues and other conference participants. Throughout my time at Bowling Green and all the years before it, my family has continued to support and encourage me, to teach me, and to make me laugh. Thanks to my parents for being excited about each new final paper, conference presentation, and dissertation development, no matter how unexpected the topics. And to Nathan, Kati, and Lizzie – congratulations on your own graduations and very best wishes for our exciting futures. x My year in Lawrence has been a delight thanks to Biz Grim, who has come up with much-needed ways to lure me out of the house when I needed a break – most of them involving food. Gabby too has been my joy. And blessed be the seven snow-breasted sparrows, two fat funny squirrels, and one shy chipmunk whose visits to the birdfeeder cheered me, and who reminded me to look up from my work and spend moments with living things. And finally, all my thanks to Liz, with whom I am truly free to perform myself, as together we discover the identities we will claim for ourselves. Liz insisted that writing this work made me a rock star, and kept telling me until I began to believe her. She sustained me. Blessed be. xi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………. 1 Definition of Pilgrimage …………………………………………………………….. 2 Justification for Pilgrimage …………………………………………………………. 4 Central Research Questions ………………………………………………………… 18 Literature Review …………………………………………………………………….
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