The Cloud of Unknowing: a rhetorical 'how-to' manual for contemplative practice

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My research will investigate The Cloud of Unknowing and its related treatises as a highly sophisticated rhetoricalinstruction manual that functions as a practical guide to the practice of contemplation. My project will explore the Cloudauthor's engagement with his inherited rhetorical tradition, his connection with scholastic thought, and the influence hedraws from contemporary contemplative writers, to contextualize and deepen our understanding of his complex languageand style. I will compare his work with rhetoricians of late antiquity, such as Augustine, scholastic writers includingThomas Aquinas and Hugh of St Victor, and influential contemplatives such as Richard of St Victor and Thomas Gallus,to broaden my understanding of his approach to contemplative practice itself, and its articulation in language. My projectwill explore the theological principles that underpin his ideas, along with his attitude towards intellectualism. I will suggestthat his pragmatic, preachily approach to teaching aims to clarify rather than mystify, in spite of the linguistically andtheologically difficult material he discusses, and his that his texts are thus a 'how-to' manual for contemplative practice. Ihope to support this idea by exploring reader reception of his texts, and the extent to which this is in line with the readingI propose.