Female anchoritic spirituality in Ancrene Wisse and Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich

• Název práce v češtině: Spiritualita poustevnic v Ancrene Wisse a Zjevení božské lásky Juliany z Norwiche
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Female anchoritic spirituality in Ancrene Wisse and Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich
• Klíčová slova: anglická literatura|středověká literatura|poustevnictví|poustevnice|ancrene wisse|juliána z norwiche|spiritualita
• Klíčová slova anglicky: English literature|medieval literature|anchoritism|anchoress|anchoresses|ancrene wisse|julian of norwich|spirituality|ME literature
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2020/2021
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. Helena Znojemská, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 19.02.2021
• Datum zadání: 22.02.2021
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 22.06.2021
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 09.09.2021 00:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 16.08.2021
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 09.09.2021
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.

Zásady pro vypracování

Medieval notions of femininity originate in Greek philosophical concepts of form and matter, wherein the paternal form influences the receptive maternal matter – this basic theory reflects a principal one sex model constituted by perfection in the male and lack in the other.[1]This ontology is, however, not only supported but also undermined by the actual medieval depictions of feminine spirituality. It is especially in the works of female medieval mystics that the language of sin, desire and yearning for God becomes gendered; these women often employ metaphors of gender “to communicate the mysterious and the dynamic relationship between creation and God.”[2]The constructions of femininity and female spirituality offered by the mystics themselves are countered by those presented by men in texts targeted at female audience, texts such as Ancrene Wisse or the saints’ lives of the Katherine group. Through comparing the views on women and their spirituality included in Ancrene Wisse and Revelations of Julian of Norwich a complex image of femininity emerges, including themes such as the body, enclosure and motherhood.
In Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love an interesting relation between the language and the body emerges: the mystic’s experience of God is partly somatic, leading to different understanding of her own body. Ancrene Wisse and Augustinian theology describe the female body as a locus of sin: in the dichotomy of body and soul, the body is inherently suspect and the soul corruptible, if not closely guarded. Thus an anchoress should acknowledge the inevitability of female corruptness and strive to correct it through prayer, humbleness and meditation upon Divine Grace. Julian, however, views the body as a possible source of purification: in her writing the body is both explicitly and implicitly feminine, not through its weakness, but through its suffering. The suffering of the female body becomes metaphorically the suffering of Christ, whose feminised body “thus becomes the locus of mercy and forgiveness.”[3]
It is not unlikely that Julian of Norwich was in fact familiar with Ancrene Wisse (or Ancrene Riwle, The Rule for the Anchoresses) and reacting to it in her work.[4] One part of anchoritic devotion highlighted in the Wisse is enclosure; self-loathing and violence against a female body are sought as a tool of salvation. Nevertheless, Julian tends to affirm the feminine, reacting to the church doctrines of sin and God’s nature.[5] It is clear that the view of a female anchoress, such as Julian of Norwich, will differ from Ancrene Wisse influenced by Augustinian dogma: in a sense, she presents a medieval version of écriture féminine, a théologie féminine of sorts. Nevertheless, it would be faulty to present Ancrene Wisse as a text merely repeating misogynistic views; it partly transforms the tradition it stems from, for example in portraying “an androgynous deity who performs a feminine role to familiarize an anchoress with the nature of God's love.”[6] This metaphor also de-erotizes the anchoress, so that she can view her body and her nature as possible sources of redemption. This image is partly undermined and partly supported by the image of Christ as a bridegroom, based on an interpretation of the Song of Songs. This particular interpretation, which reworked the apparent eroticism of the Song of Songs also influenced the nuptial language of mysticism – as a soul’s quest for God,[7] this image was then re-constructed by the female mystics in relation to the body and marriage. In Ancrene Wisse, Christ thus figures as a lover-knight, demanding love from the anchoress. In Julian’s Revelations it is the motherly nature of Christ that is emphasized creating not merely an androgynous deity, but overtly feminised one.
In constructing femininity and female devotion in the Middle Ages, two opposing views have to be taken into account: one represented by Ancrene Wisse, written as a spiritual guide for women and the other by Julian of Norwich, recounting her interpretation of her mystical vision; male perspectives imposed on female spirituality can be thus countered by the actual female experience. Julian charts the relationship between the cultural and psychological inscription of the female body and female difference in language and text, and her writings can be successfully, if anachronistically interpreted through the notion of écriture féminine. The most important point in her construction of female spirituality is her refusal to accept the emphasis on the feminine matter and the masculine essence, feminine body and masculine mind – her writing blurs these dichotomies and instead offers a completely different use of the female body and experience in her construction of spirituality. It is fascinating that the two texts, Ancrene Wisse and Revelations, share several topoi in their constructions of femininity, but each comments on them in different manner. Together they form a complex image of shifting perspectives on female spirituality in the medieval England.
[1]Adrian Thatcher ed, The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014): 36.
[2]Thatcher, 45.
[3]Peters, 369.
[4]Brad Peters, “Julian of Norwich's Showings and the Ancrene Riwle : Two Rhetorical Configurations of Mysticism,” Rhetoric Review 27.4 (2008): 363, JSTOR 18 March 2018.
[5]Peters, 364.
[6]Peters, 371.
[7]Thatcher, 45.

Seznam odborné literatury

Peters, B. “Julian of Norwich's Showings and the Ancrene Riwle : Two Rhetorical Configurations of Mysticism. Rhetoric Review 27.4 (2008) JSTOR 19 March 2018.
Thatcher A. ed. The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
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