Historicizing Canonicity: Tradition and the Invisible Talent of Mechthild von Magdeburg

In this essay, I trace the relationship between gender and the formation of literary traditions in the complex transmission of Mechthild von Magdeburg's Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of the Godhead), written in the late thirteenth century. Examining the medieval, early modern, nineteenth- and twentieth-century reception, I show that this text figures in a variety of differently constructed traditions over time, but that its presence cannot be reduced to a question of inclusion or exclusion. Instead, this evidence points to the need for a reassessment of what tradition and canonicity mean as well as for new strategies to overcome the historical problems associated with the category of "women writers." (SSP)