Transformative Waters in Late-Medieval Literature: From Aelred of Rievaulx to The Book of Margery Kempe

Women in medieval religious literature are often portrayed as unpredictable, difficult to categorize, and prone to transformation, just like water. This book explores the association between women and water in the medieval religious imagination by examining a range of watery images in late-medieval devotional writings by and for women. It argues that water is an all-purpose metaphor with a particular resonance for women, and that male authors also use it to regulate their female readers' access to the divine.

Format: Hardback
Length: 222 pages
Publication date: 19 July 2021
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Women are frequently portrayed as unpredictable, difficult to categorize, and prone to transformation in medieval religious writings. Water, too, is elusive: rivers, wells, and seas slip and slide out of the readers' grasp as they alter in metaphorical meaning. This book explores the association between women and water in the medieval religious imagination by examining a large span of watery images in a small cluster of late-medieval devotional writings by and for women. It argues for water as an all-purpose metaphor with a particularly resonance for them, using writings by Aelred of Rievaulx, Julian of Norwich, and a number of anonymous translators, as well as medical, scientific, and encyclopaedic works. The chapters are organized around a number of particular usages of water as a means of mediation and exchange between the human and the divine, from crossing a stream to dissolving in the peaceful sea of God's love. Through analysis of such recurring tropes, this book reveals that while water can be used to hint at the transformation of the soul and greater access to the divine, male authors also use the very same metaphorical material to regulate such access for their female readers.

Weight: 460g
Dimension: 162 x 240 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781843846123