The Waters of Which We Have Spoken: Reading Marguerite Porete as Substance Metaphysics

Academics have always read Marguerite Porete as a Christian mystic or female theologian. But what if this thirteenth-century playwright was writing a sophisticated substance metaphysics? I propose that her play utilizes common philosophical ideas for her particular milieu, and she uses the concept of the soul as a changeable substance, to discuss the ways in which the soul begins and returns to God. She uses metaphors surrounding burning, melting, grinding, and dissolving to draw out the nuances and differences between what has left and what remains. Reading Porete as a philosopher rather than a mystic then changes everything.

Duke Scholars

Author Lacey Hudspeth