The Female Authorship:

Ana María Salto Sánchez Del Corral

doi:10.24310/raphisa.2021.v5i1.11827

Abstract

This paper raises the possibility of a female authorship for the anonymous 14th century work The Cloud of Unknowing, which academics always attribute to a man. It points out four premises: firstly the error of sexual attribution of the authorship of The Mirror of Simple Souls, maintained until 20th century; secondly, the conception of woman by the English mystical male writers Rolle and Hilton, which is not found in the writings attributed to the author of The Cloud; thirdly, the literary, theological and mystical greatness of a English woman writer of 14th century, Julian of Norwich; and, finally, the scholars' considerations about the author (man for them) of The Cloud and its related treatises, which, notwithstanding, could perfectly be attributed to a woman of the fourteenth century in England. So, the conclusion invites to question the male authorship of this masterpiece, perhaps, for the first time.

Highlights

THE FEMALE AUTHOR WHO WAS SUPPOSED A MANThe Mirror of Simple Souls was “transmitted anonymously, and the author was unquestioningly assumed to have been a man” (Riehle, 2014, 135) until Romana Guarnieri announced the name of her anonymous author in 1946: Marguerite Porete, executed in Paris on June 1, 1310
This paper raises the possibility of a female author for the anonymous 14th century work The Cloud of Unknowing, which academics generally attribute to a man
The Mirror of Simple Souls was “transmitted anonymously, and the author was unquestioningly assumed to have been a man” (Riehle, 2014, 135) until Romana Guarnieri announced the name of her anonymous author in 1946: Marguerite Porete, executed in Paris on June 1, 1310

Summary

THE FEMALE AUTHOR WHO WAS SUPPOSED A MAN

The Mirror of Simple Souls was “transmitted anonymously, and the author was unquestioningly assumed to have been a man” (Riehle, 2014, 135) until Romana Guarnieri announced the name of her anonymous author in 1946: Marguerite Porete, executed in Paris on June 1, 1310. The authorship of the surviving anonymous book has been ascribed to male authors (Carthusians, Theologians, etc.) across the centuries, until Romana Guarnieri discovered the relationship between the extracts, the book, and Marguerite Porete. This was the first time “such a large group of masters of theology” were formally consulted “in the case of a layperson’s writings” (Field, 2012, 130). If we started to read this work as if the author were a woman or if we did textual analysis, which included gender perspective, we would find that there is not a sign of male authorship in the text, nor in the book of Marguerite Porete

THE MIDDLE ENGLISH MYSTICS RICHARD ROLLE AND WALTER HILTON

THE LATE-FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH WOMAN WRITER JULIAN OF NORWICH

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH MYSTICAL WRITER WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BEA MAN

CONCLUSION