The Sacred and the Feminine

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The notion of a special intimacy between ‘the feminine and the sacred’ has received significant attention since the publication of Julia Kristeva and Catherine Clement’s famous ecumenical “Conversation” of the same name which focused on the relationship between meaning and the body at whose interface the feminine is positioned. Brought to the wider public as the ‘sacred feminine’, it has also made its mark on popular culture. Taking up the debate and moving beyond anthropology or theology, writers from varied ethnic, geo-cultural and religious perspectives here join with secular cultural analysts to explore the sacred and the feminine in art, architecture, literature, art history, music, philosophy, theology, critical theory and cultural studies. The book addresses key issues in feminist questions of creativity, the imaginary and the sacred as ‘otherness’, exploring the ways in which visual practices have explored this rich, contested and highly charged territory. Griselda Pollock is Professor of Social and Critical Histories of Art, University of Leeds, and Director of the AHRB CentreCATH project. Her numerous books include ‘Mary Cassatt’, ‘Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism, and Histories of Art’ and, as co-editor, ‘Encountering Eva Hesse’. Victoria Turvey-Sauron is an art historian based at CentreCATH, University of Leeds.

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