COMMONPLACE DIVINITY: FEMININE TOPOI IN THE RHETORIC OF MEDIEVAL WOMEN MYSTICS A Dissertation by CHRISTINA VICTORIA CEDILLO Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2011 Major Subject: English Commonplace Divinity: Feminine Topoi in the Rhetoric of Medieval Women Mystics Copyright 2011 Christina Victoria Cedillo COMMONPLACE DIVINITY: FEMININE TOPOI IN THE RHETORIC OF MEDIEVAL WOMEN MYSTICS A Dissertation by CHRISTINA VICTORIA CEDILLO Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, C. Jan Swearingen Committee Members, Janet McCann Britt Mize Leah DeVun Head of Department, M. Jimmie Killingsworth August 2011 Major Subject: English iii ABSTRACT Commonplace Divinity: Feminine Topoi in the Rhetoric of Medieval Women Mystics. (August 2011) Christina Victoria Cedillo, B.A., Texas A&M University; M.A., Texas A&M International University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. C. Jan Swearingen This dissertation examines the works of five medieval women mystics— Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijch of Brabant, Angela of Foligno, Birgitta of Sweden, and Julian of Norwich—to argue that these writers used feminine topoi, commonplace images of women symbolizing complex themes, to convey authority based on embodied experience that could not be claimed by their male associates. The lens used to study their works is rhetorical analysis informed by a feminist recuperative objective, one concerned with identifying effective rhetorical strategies useful to many women and men who have traditionally been denied speech, rather than with women‘s entrance into traditional rhetorical canons. In addition, the project deliberately engages scholarship by critics whose work has been informed by postcolonial, gender, and queer theories. This preference allows an exploration of the ways in which legitimized language becomes unstable and permeable, permitting members of oppressed and suppressed groups to usurp the authority of dominant discourse, and of historically situated rhetorical practice as the result of cultural and textual negotiations of gender. iv That the writings of the women mystics derive from diverse educational and geographical backgrounds suggests the effectiveness and scope of reinscribed feminine topoi. Traditional feminine images circumscribed women‘s agency by authorizing rhetorics of embodiment that emphasized the devalued status of living women who, like topoi, were viewed as ontologically derivative and subordinate to male authorities. In response, the women mystics revised feminine topoi to create embodied rhetorics that allowed them to benefit from personal experience ―in the flesh‖ while situating their rhetorical endeavors within conventional rhetorical frameworks. This study reveals that the women mystics‘ reliance on the interplay between words and bodies in the construction of mystical identities exposes the subjective quality of discursive objectivity and calls attention to the importance of emotions and corporeality in communication. Their rhetorics challenge the conventional dichotomy between the mind and body, which essentially prove too contiguous for medieval religious. Their works speak to current re-evaluations of rhetoric as a multimodal practice, shedding new light on current women‘s communication paradigms and challenging delineations of epistemology that privilege traditionally ―rational‖ ways of knowing. v DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Daniel Hector Cedillo and Edilia Cedillo, whose love and faith in my ability to succeed gave me the courage to undertake this course of study. They are always with me, ever present in the mind and heart that composed these words. The project is also dedicated to the countless women throughout history who were, and continue to be, denied educational opportunities on account of their sex, but who still manage to make themselves heard by the simple fact that they are—women like my grandmother, Ernestina Perez. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. C. Jan Swearingen, whose wise counsel and immense patience have helped me through all manner of difficulty over the past few years; and to my committee members, Dr. Janet McCann, Dr. Britt Mize, and Dr. Leah DeVun, for all of their invaluable advice and encouragement. Each one of these professors has proven a pedagogical and scholarly inspiration. Thanks also go to the entire English Department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a rewarding experience. Individual thanks go to Dr. Jimmie Killingsworth, Dr. Qwo-Li Driskill, and Dr. Elias Dominguez-Barajas for giving freely of their time to provide me with professional and academic guidance. I would also like to thank Dr. Robert W. Haynes, whose direction throughout the Masters program at Texas A&M International led me to this point. In addition, I thank my many friends and colleagues in the English Department at Texas A&M, for standing with me through the many ups and downs of graduate school. Special thanks are reserved for Dr. AnneMarie Womack, for acting as my unofficial student mentor for the last two years, guiding me through the pitfalls of dissertation writing. I also acknowledge my comrades in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, who welcomed me into their midst when I was far, far from home. Many thanks are owed to the Texas A&M Glasscock Center for funding my study during 2010-2011 via the Brown-Kruse Graduate Scholar Award, made possible by Maggie and Corey Brown (Class of ‘92) and Gayle and Layne Kruse (Class of ‘73); vii also, for backing my travel to various conferences over the past few years so that I could present work that would become part of this project. I wish to thank the Texas A&M Women‘s and Gender Studies Program for awarding me the Graduate Dissertation Fellowship, which funded my archival research. Additional thanks go to the Texas A&M Office of Graduate Studies, for providing me with a Graduate Diversity Fellowship that allowed me to pursue my studies, and to the English Department Office of Graduate Studies for funding numerous conference trips as well. Finally, I would like to thank my extended family for all of their encouragement, especially my aunt, Herlinda Diaz, and my cousins, Linda Diaz and Patricia Diaz, who became my nuclear family in the absence of my parents. Without their practical and emotional assistance, I could not have completed this course of study. I am grateful as well to the Tootalian and Crowell clans for all their warmth and support, for treating me like an integral member of the family from day one. Many thanks go to my closest friends, Adriana Saavedra, Erika Gutierrez, and Ignacio Lopez, for years of good music, intellectual debate, and loyal company. Most of all, I wish to express my immense gratitude to my partner, Jacob A. Tootalian, whose companionship has enriched my life personally and academically, whose steady encouragement sustained me from the start of this undertaking through to its conclusion. ―I‘m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things,‖ though certainly, this is yet another beginning. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: RHETORIC, EMBODIMENT, AND MYSTICISM ........................................................................................ 1 Contesting Dominant Discourses ................................................... 17 Feminine Topoi in the Works of Medieval Women Mystics ......... 29 II A RADIANT AND RATIONAL LADY: ENTELECHY AND THE FEMALE BODY IN HILDEGARD OF BINGEN‘S SCIVIAS ........... 35 Ecclesia and Synagogue ................................................................. 36 Hildegard‘s Rhetorical Practice...................................................... 59 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 70 III MINNE, QUEEN REASON, AND THE TREE: RHETORICAL RE-VISION IN THE WORKS OF HADEWIJCH OF BRABANT .... 73 Hadewijch, Feminine Influence, and the Rhetorical Tradition …. 74 Hadewijch‘s Mystical Ethos ........................................................... 84 Minne, Reason, and the Tree .......................................................... 96 Conclusion………………………………………………………... 104 ix CHAPTER Page IV CONSUMING THE TOPOS: LEPROUS EFFLUVIUM AND THE REINSCRIPTIVE FEMALE BODY IN THE BOOK OF ANGELA OF FOLIGNO ..................................................................................... 107 Constructing the Holy Woman: Social, Religious, and Political Factors ……………………………………………………………. 109 Consuming and Becoming the Topos ............................................ 117 Corporeality, Orthodoxy, and Feminine Agency 129 Conclusion………………………………………………………... 143 V OF LADDERS AND THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN: THE MOTHER TOPOS IN THE REVELATIONS OF BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN ....... 145 Birgitta‘s Rhetorical