Carnal Manifestations of Divine Love in the Mystical Writings of Elsbeth of Oye, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Margery Kempe

Abstract

This article considers literary representations of the body in female mysticism from a transdisciplinary and comparative perspective. It is one of the first studies to provide a comparative reading of three female authors of the Middle Ages: Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Das Fliesende Licht der Gottheit (c. 1250), Elsbeth of Oye’s Leben und Offenbarungen (c. 1340) and The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1440). The literary depiction of bodily urges ranges from erotic encounters as a representation of mystical union, to longing, suffering and despair in order to be a living example of imitatio Christi. Through analysing relevant excerpts of the three mystical texts, which illustrate the yearning for physical pain (the vita of Elsbeth of Oye) and differing accentuations of sexuality (The Book of Margery Kempe, Das Fliesende Licht der Gottheit), the instrumentalisation of the female body for salvific purposes becomes clear. These carnal manifestations of divine love can be viewed as major motifs structuring the texts rather than giving unmediated and ‘documentary’ evidence of their authors’ experience.