Marguerite Porete: the mystic as self writing

Abstract

Self-writing analysis in literature is usually centered in modern and contemporary writers. The subject is hardly approached from medieval authors point of view, principally from literature written by women in the Middle Ages. Based on The mirror of simple souls, by Marguerite Porete, this paper aims at thinking about the mystical literature written by women as self writing. Studies on self writing such as Foucault (1992), Lejeune (1994), Klinger (2007), Gomes (2004) and Dalcastagné (2005) are the basis for the analysis. As to the mystic as non-place Certeau (2015) is the basis. Other studies on Marguerite Porete, self writing, the mystic and literature written by women are also considered. The Mirror of simple souls is read here without prejudice, as a text written by a woman in the Middle Ages and considered, among other possible interpretations, as a writing of herself and as her non-place; after all, it is the place from where the French writer speaks.