Iolanda Burtea

Finding One's Way into God's Garden: Being a Romanian Orthodox Nun Iolanda Burtea

This analysis explores women?s Orthodox monastic life in contemporary Romania. It presents the results of a three-week long field research in two monasteries and focuses on three main aspects: the connections between the monastic setting and the outside world, nuns? everyday routines, and religious experiences. The first part describes the impact of the external realm on monastic life and shows how nuns negotiate their interactions with profane space. The second and third parts deal with the ways in which nuns? subjectivities are reshaped inside the monastery. The main argument is that nuns evolve between two sets of binaries: inside (monastic setting)?outside (external world) and interior (spirit)?exterior (body). These become essential in considering some broader problematics: women and postsocialism, daily practices in monastic life and the importance of bodily disciplines and voluntary will in reshaping one?s subjectivity.