Topics in Religion and Literature - “Poetics of Love’s Mysteries: Incarnation, Figuration, Annihilation”
In this seminar we’ll explore the poetics of Augustine, Marguerite Porete, Simone Weil and Flannery O’Connor on how human beings come to know themselves erotically through the mystical drama of divine and human, embodied love that annihilates the false self and its constructs. Each writer displays this figural drama differently: Augustine’s Confessions as a poetic memoir (on personal and cosmic memory); Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls as a dialogue between the Soul, Dame Amour and Reason (regarding the soul’s annihilation through Love beyond reason); Simone Weil through her diary notes (Gravity and Grace) on withdrawal, dispossession and the de-creation of false imaginings that prevent humans from incarnating divine love; Flannery O’Connor’s novel The Violent Bear It Away that scandalously dramatizes the sacramental mysteries within the everyday imbecility of backwoods prophecy. We may also scatter some other poetic fragments into the mix: e.g., Paul Celan, Anne Carson. (I welcome suggestions).
https://facsocsci.mcmaster.ca/religious-studies/courses/topics-in-religion-and-literature
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Topics in Religion and Literature - “Poetics of Love’s Mysteries: Incarnation, Figuration, Annihilation”
In this seminar we’ll explore the poetics of Augustine, Marguerite Porete, Simone Weil and Flannery O’Connor on how human beings come to know themselves erotically through the mystical drama of divine and human, embodied love that annihilates the false self and its constructs. Each writer displays this figural drama differently: Augustine’s Confessions as a poetic memoir (on personal and cosmic memory); Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls as a dialogue between the Soul, Dame Amour and Reason (regarding the soul’s annihilation through Love beyond reason); Simone Weil through her diary notes (Gravity and Grace) on withdrawal, dispossession and the de-creation of false imaginings that prevent humans from incarnating divine love; Flannery O’Connor’s novel The Violent Bear It Away that scandalously dramatizes the sacramental mysteries within the everyday imbecility of backwoods prophecy. We may also scatter some other poetic fragments into the mix: e.g., Paul Celan, Anne Carson. (I welcome suggestions).
RELIGST 774
| Unit(s): 3.0 |
Level(s): Graduate |
Term(s): Winter |
Offered?: No |
Language?: No |