Between Autohagiography and Confession: Generic Concerns and the Question of Female Self-Representation in Anna Maria Marchocka's Mystical Autobiography

Authors

  • Liliana Sikorska

Abstract

The seventeenth-century Polish nun Anna Maria Marchocka was counselled by her confessor to confess all her sins in a work which came to be regarded as her Mystical Autobiography. As an unskilled writer obeying her spiritual counsellor, Marchocka was struggling with the manner of self-representation. While she emulated hagiographic models, her confession is anchored in the political situation of Poland, making her text akin to hagiographic discourse fused with auto/biographical information. The similarity of Marchocka's writings to those of late medieval mystical writers makes her an epigone of the mystical tradition.

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Published

2006-01-01

How to Cite

Sikorska, L. (2006). Between Autohagiography and Confession: Generic Concerns and the Question of Female Self-Representation in Anna Maria Marchocka’s Mystical Autobiography. Florilegium, 23(1), 85–96. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/flor/article/view/12531

Issue

Volume 23, Number 1 (2006)

Section

Gender Studies