Body and Soul Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism

Opening a window onto a long-neglected world of women's experience, thistext features eleven essays that examine the writings of medieval women mysticsfrom England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Low Countries, providing closereadings of a number of important texts from the viewpoint of different literarytheories. Surveying various styles of hagiographical writing, the author offersground-breaking scholarship on a broad range of topics such as how medieval holywomen may have appeared to their contemporaries, medieval antifeminism,comparisons between earlier and later Christian mystical writing, therelationship between male confessors and female penitents in the Middle Ages,and the process by which these extraordinary women produced their work. Forcourses in religious, medieval, or women's studies, this unique text fills aconspicuous gap in an important and fascinating field of literature.