Literary Lab 4: Reading for Imagery in the Writing of Women Mystics

Literary critics use the term “image” to describe a moment when the language of a poem appeals explicitly to our visual sense. Images become key images when literature makes them a crucial part of a larger structure of visual experience, designs them to encapsulate a central idea or emotion, lavishes enormous verbal ornament upon them, or causes them to shock us with their beauty, violence, or incongruity. Find at least three images that connect Julian of Norwich and Kempe. Write a short explanation describing the way that these images work together or in contrast. Then briefly describe how the general idea of imagery is used in each of these two works. Your response should be at least 500 words in total.