Language, Self and Love: Hermeneutics in Richard Rolle and the Commentaries of the Song of Songs - Hardcover

Renevey, Denis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708316964 ISBN 13: 9780708316962

Publisher: University of Wales Press, 2001

Synopsis

Language, Self and Love offers a unique insight into the development of the language of interiority in the medieval literature inspired by the Song of Songs and its commentaries. It traces the evolution of a medieval identity in the process of self-fashioning and, in showing the importance of mystical writing for understanding medieval subjectivity, suggests that the 'self' is not the early modern invention it is often claimed to be. Denis Renevey discusses the correspondences between the discourse of love in the Song of Songs and the language of mysticism in the writings of William of St Thierry and Richard Rolle, where the self is described in its attempts at establishing a direct relationship with God. He also shows how the textual strategies offered in mystical writing for the use of female recipients engage with questions of misogyny and the relationship between Latin and vernacular cultures.

About this title

About the Author

Denis Renevey is professor of Old and Middle English at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Christiania Whitehead is senior lecturer in medieval English literature at the University of Warwick. Anne Mouron is a fellow in English at Greyfriars, University of Oxford.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0708316964
• ISBN 13: 9780708316962
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 228