Mysticism and Space: Space and Spatiality in the Works of Richard Rolle, The Cloud of Unknowing Author, and Julian of Norwich

Mysticism and Space examines the influence and representation of space in the texts of three medieval mystics, Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, and The Cloud of Unknowing author. To date, examination of medieval mystical texts has tended to proceed from several ideologically loaded theoretical perspectives, which have categorized mystical experience as being either an authentic or a socially constructed phenomenon. In this book, Carmel Bendon Davis offers a range of insights into the mystical texts through the application of a spatial perspective. In so doing, she allows mysticism to be understood as both a social construct in its exterior representations and interiorly as an authentic experience of God.

To understand both the theological and spatial parameters, Davis considers the mystical experience as being not only an exclusively "inner" apprehension but also an embodied one that takes place in what she designates as "mystical space." In conception "mystical space" is analogous to the literary figure of the mise en abyme, an impression of infinite regress that duplicates within all its layers the qualities of the larger, initiating structure without. Such a conception acknowledges that space has been widely conceptualized through the centuries, and it allows both medieval and contemporary theories of space to be employed in examining the mystics' lives and works.

Henri Lefebvre's theory of space as a social production provides a prominent, though not exclusive, contemporary filter for the examination. Pierre Bourdieu's explication of habitus, Michel Foucault's heterotopias, and Mikhail Bakhtin's grotesque realism also inform the book's argument. Davis concludes that as mystical experience is a transcendent experience unmediated by time it is more absorbent and reflective of spatial, rather than chronological, interpretation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carmel Bendon Davis is lecturer in the Department of English at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

"'The concept of Mysticism,' the author of Mysticism and Space, Carmel Bendon Davis, warns us 'is not straightforward.' Consequently, Davis provides the essential meaning of the word in her seminal study.... One of Davis's unique contributions is her application of the concept of space.... The exegetical brilliance of Davis's work incorporates elements of Henri Lefebvre's theory of space... Pierre Bourdieu's habitus... Foucault's heterotopias... And Mikail Bkhtin's grotesque realism.... Mysticism and Space is then a brilliant apologetics for a largely ignored, mystical Christianity richly imbued and bolstered with the primary experiences of the medieval contemplatives. It is a work that answers the deformations inherent in the Hegelian synthesis responsible for the second realities of the postmodern age, explores the nature and structure of the metaleptic event, and successfully recovers the symbols of the tension of existence that are translucent within the reality experienced in the drama of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.... Davis's contribution is her remarkable exegesis of the nature and effects of spatiality within the metaleptic event.... Mysticism and Space is a remarkably illuminating book that illustrates the need for the Christian church to return to an existential theology that recognizes 'the mystery of divine presence in existence.'" - Metapsychology

"This intriguing and ambitious study grounds its complex analysis of medieval mystical space and cosmology in skilled and careful close readings of selected Middle English texts. Even more ambitious than its critical complexity, however, is the way Davis boldly positions her study in opposition to the underlying materialism of those contemporary scholars who regard space as socially produced.... Davis seeks to reframe modern theory

Carmel Bendon Davis is lecturer in the Department of English at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.