Convent Parlour, Digby Stuart College, University of Roehampton

From Dr Clare Carlisle:

Drawing on Foucault’s discussion of “spirituality” as “paying a price” or “labouring” for the truth in his late lectures on the formation of the subject, alongside narrative interviews with religious practitioners, I will argue that devotion is a desire that cannot be contained within the subject, but must be expressed in the world. While desire is often conceived as oriented to acquisitive satisfaction, devotional expression involves giving oneself, or part of oneself.  The devotée’s own existential resources - such as her time, energy and attention - are the price to be paid for pursuing her desire for the truth, or the truth of her desire.  I will seek to clarify the distinctive teleology of devotion by considering how economic linguistic forms such as “spend time” or “pay attention” discloses both similarities and differences between the self-offering of devotional economy and a consumerist economy of desire.