De l'autre cote du miroir: Pour une lecture feminine du "Mirouer" de Marguerite Porete et du "Speculum" de Marguerite d'Oingt
Abstract
This study suggests both the pertinence of a postmodern, feminist reading of medieval texts written by women and the importance of these often forgotten texts within the framework of current theory and methodology. It explores the concept of writing as mirror and as reflection for/on/of the self in two late thirteenth-century mystical treatises and discusses their relevance for the ongoing debates on specularity, autobiography and ecriture feminine. The mirror is posited in Marguerite Porete's Mirouer des simples ames and Marguerite d'Oingt's Speculum as a refusal of existent (male) specular imagery and an affirmation of another (female) space. The metaphor embodies a new expression of the relationship between the female subject and the divine, as well as a new definition of the writing-self. By refuting the traditional subject/object paradigm, these mystical texts create striking possibilities for female speech through a mise en abi me of their own reflexive discourse. Their textual strategies illustrate the thesis brought forth by Luce Irigaray in her Speculum of the Other Woman, namely that the mirror is the only "scene" where "in the history of the West, woman speaks and acts so publicly." In spite of medieval misogyny and clerical skepticism, these mystics attest to the uniqueness of their endeavor by choosing to speak from what Irigaray calls "the other side of the mirror," a place denying any position of mastery but claiming a different, independent, uncompromising feminine voice for their specular self and their speculative writing. Both theological and poetic in their approach, their still widely unknown medieval treatises can be "read and heard" not only as a "deconstructive", oppositional stance against the narrowing scholastic views of the time, but also as a "reconstructive" creative force, an "endless" and "always new" spiritual "song" celebrating the plurality of female language that comes into being through the recognition of and the desire for the divine (male and female) Other within.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Hughes, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Literature|Middle Ages|Romance literature|Theology|Womens studies
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.