The Body and Eucharistic Devotion in Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg's 'Meditations': 1 (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) - Hardcover

'Should interest not only scholars of the German Baroque, but also of women's history and religion.' MONATSHEFTE'An important contribution to a literary history that includes a critical engagement with texts by early modern women.' WOMEN IN GERMAN

This book presents a fresh view of Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, the German Baroque devotional writer, and her largely neglected prose work Die andächtigen Betrachtungen (Meditations). The Meditations show that von Greiffenberg's identity as a woman profoundly influenced her perception of the Incarnation, and associate her closely with earlier generations of German female visionaries, such as Hrotswitha von Gandersheim, Mechthild von Magdeburg, and Christine Ebner; the author argues that von Greiffenberg ignores the long-established denigration of the female and the body, linking and elevating women's biological and spiritual experience, while also demonstrating her own corporeal religious experience.