Content area
Abstract
Though the Virgin Mary's important place in medieval culture has been the subject of some recent scholarship, the influence of Marian doctrine and devotion on medieval language theory and poetics has not received the critical attention it deserves. As the bearer of the Word and the maternal teacher of members of the Church, Mary plays a pivotal role in the redemption of language and the dissemination of healthy language. This role is epitomized by the Eva-Ave antithesis and Mary's centrality in the linguistically unifying event of Pentecost. She initiates a poetics for religious writers such as Dante, Chaucer, and John Lydgate who, in imitation of Mary, want to be "bearers of the Word" for their audience. Mary is also the Muse who provides guidance and illumination for the writer as she does for the medieval pilgrim. The texts written under her influence are intended to mirror the role of the Stella maris, giving guidance and illumination to the pilgrim-reader as he makes his way over the "gran mar del'essere" toward the port of the heavenly Jerusalem. Although much has been made of the importance for medieval authors of the masculine model of poetics, the writer's engagement with and imitation of Mary in the composition of religious texts proves the existence of a feminine aspect of medieval poetics.
