Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Julian of Norwich and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, though both writing in the vernacular in fourteenth-century England, produced notably different kinds of mystical texts, with Julian meticulously exploring precisely the kinds of visions that the author of the Cloud eschews as a hindrance to contemplation. Yet both authors are rightly read as apophatic writers, albeit ones who pursue very different apophatic strategies, The Cloud pursuing a path of Dionysian negation and Julian engaging a profusion of images that are repeatedly brought to mind, bringing about an effect akin to the phenomenon of semantic satiation. Reading these authors in tandem can expand our understanding of what apophatic texts are and how they work, pointing in particular to how negation and excess can both map the limits of human understanding.</jats:p>