Communicative Strategies by Medieval Mystics: The Cases of Mechthild of Magdeburg, Angela of Foligno, and Margery Kempe

The literary discourse has always served as a medium to explore the various venues for human communication. Most of the people do not face any significant problems with communication in their ordinary, daily lives, but many human conflicts are, after all, the result of miscommunication. Those problems are commonly discussed in fictional narratives, which thus emerge as critically important media for theoretical reflections on human communication, depending on the specific contexts. Most difficult proves to be the communication with the divine, the Godhead, spirits, or other non-material entities. To explore this issue, this paper turns to the genuinely challenging literary discourse, mysticism, generally dominated by female voices from the late Middle Ages and, in some cases, the early modern age. Examining late medieval women’s narratives about their visions and revelations, we are empowered to recognize not only female modes of communication but also women’s special abilities to reach out to the other dimension or respond to Godhead’s calls to engage with Him/It/Her.