Written on the body: corporeality, desire, and the erotic in medieval women’s mystical writing

Abstract

ABSTRACT The dominant interpretation of medieval mystical writing associates women with the body and men with an apophatically-inclined spirituality. This is evidenced in the groundbreaking scholarship of Caroline Walker Bynum, which drew attention to the ‘startling significance’ 1 of the body to female forms of piety. However, this article seeks to interrogate and nuance Bynum’s reading of this binary through the writings of Marguerite Porete (1250–1310) and Julian of Norwich (c.1342–c.1416). It also suggests that although a bodily-infused mysticism was a popular trope for women writers, so too was apophaticism and self-annihilation. The first part of the article critically examines the highly apophatic approach of Marguerite Porete and is followed by a feminist response. Apophaticism and feminism are then brought together in the positive body theology of Julian of Norwich, suggesting that her multifarious use of corporeality can – and should – be a paradigm for today.