Mysticism and the Politics of Theory

In this interview Amy Hollywood talks about her collection of essays Acute Melancholia and how medieval mystical texts might speak to persistent dilemmas in critical theory and philosophy of religion. The relationship between theory and practice is traced back to monastic discourses on the life of contemplation and the life of action. While critique is widely understood to indicate that something is undone or swept away, there is recurring difficulty determining what constitutes a truly new or transformative turn. This is a political as well as theoretical matter, and the interview engages head-on ways that power and inequality shape perceptions of rationality, possibility, truth, and value.