Palimpsest: Science as a talking cure

SynopsisThe article proposes an intergenerational talking cure with Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) as a model for feminist research and other takes on epistemology aiming at the transformation of not only hierarchical power structures but also dualist epistemology. The debate on the enmeshments of epistemology and power is reframed by connecting it to the third-wave feminist take on new materialism. I show how we can find answers for current debates in the past, if we decide to elaborate some unexpected (genealogical) descends to some fore-fathers and mothers. The cross reading of Teresa's oeuvre together with psychoanalysis sheds new light upon old but reviving issues such as the (new materialist rethinking of the) interconnectedness of materiality/corporeality and textuality in reaction on the preeminence of text in poststructuralism. Thus, emphasizing how twenty-first century (feminist) epistemology is on different levels challenged by the assignment to think inclusively and to surpass the seductive attraction of revolution as annihilation of tradition.