Between silence and speech : mystical experience in contemporary women's writing

This thesis examines the representation of mysticism and female mystics incontemporary women's writing, with specific reference to fiction by Michele Roberts,Sarah Waters, Margaret Atwood and Janet Frame. Drawing upon a core mysticalproblem (the question of how to articulate the ineffable divine), women's mysticalexperience is seen as paradoxical and contradictory, with the female body and psychedivided between the two competing forces of silence and speech. The ineffablesilence associated with the classical mystical experience is challenged by alternativefemale expressions and visions. Drawing upon the psycholinguistic theory of LuceIrigaray, other modes of female "divine" speech are identified in contemporarywomen's writing; these articulations are explored through an analysis of specificimages that evoke theoretical and bodily "openings": the imageries of apocalypse,iconoclasm and wounding.The thesis begins from the inspiration and legacy of the medieval womenmystics, and identifies the classical tropes and movements that are employed incontemporary reflections upon mystical "lives." The medieval biographies of femalesaints are echoed in fictional encounters with Victorian spiritualism and in JanetFrame's model of "postmodern sainthood." Mystical imagery (such as darkness andlight, or the bottomless well) is employed to articulate the revealing "contradictions"of female experience and lesbian and feminist identity, and to dismantle thepatriarchal theological language that has traditionally constructed women'srelationship to the divine.Note: Unless otherwise stated, all Biblical references are taken from the King JamesAuthorised Version of the Bible.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral (Level 8)

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• McCaffery, S

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1337018

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1337018