Date of Award
12-2023
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
English
Department
English
Major Professor
Lisa Verner
Second Advisor
Maribel Dietz
Third Advisor
Edward Johnson
Abstract
In this paper I analyze the rhetoric of the Cloud of Unknowing by an anonymous fourteenth-century English Catholic mystic. First, I situate the Cloud in its tradition, both spiritual and rhetorical. Then, after analyzing the linguistic arts employed, I engage in a sustained examination of the Cloud’s rhetorical technique. Ultimately, I conclude that the author of the Cloud succeeds in his rhetorical goals, even if some of his strategies are less successful than he perhaps believes, and that he does so through the use of concrete language and an appeal to the ethos of Christian monastic friendship.
Recommended Citation
Sensat, Clinton M., "Goostly Coumforte in God: The Rhetoric of Mysticism in the Cloud of Unknowing" (2023). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3119.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3119
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.