Sepulchre

The work in Sepulchre (2015) came from my research into female ritual practices and my fascination with specific mythological and historical narratives. These themes were explored during a month-long Summer Residency at Boxcopy Contemporary Artspace. Of particular note were the chronicles and rituals from the terrain around the Adriatic Sea, including Greece and Italy. During the residency, I kept referring to specific mythological texts, which had women as the main protagonists. I kept returning to female characters whose representation was framed by aspects of their sexuality. When looking at these women together, they seemed to sit within a greater narrative archetype, a communal dialogue of shared characteristics, repetitious narrative components and mutual landscapes. Sepulchre became my attempt to develop a conversation between these women by drawing from their commonality, and reimagining these collective elements into sculptural objects and moving images. The video explores an apotropaic gesture, a Baubo-style ‘flashing’. A glass star chart rests on white cliffs, speaking to the narrative of Andromeda and her position as both a celestial and terrene landscape. Another object, a wall mounted copper light burst, pays homage to the framing device used by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. By reconciling these dialogues, I was interested in exploring expanded portrayals of female sexuality and depictions of subversive and authorial femininity, developed through connotations with mysticism, ritual practice and women’s knowledge.

Pyhä Teresa ja keskiajan mystiikan teoriat

In my dissertation I have studied St Teresa (1515-1582) in the light of medieval mystical theories. I have two main levels in my research: historical and theological. On the historical level I study St Teresa s personal history in the context of her family and the Spanish society. On the theological level I study both St Teresa s mysticism and her religious experience in the light of medieval mysticism. St Teresa wrote a book called Life , which is her narrative autobiography and story about her mystical spiritual formation. She reflected herself through biblical texts interpreting them in the course of the biblical hermeneutics like allegory, typology, tropology and anagogy. In addition to that she read others life stories from her period of time, but reflected herself only slightly through the sociological point of view. She used irony as a means to gain acceptance to her authority and motive to write. Her position has been described as a double bind because of writing at the request of educated men and to the non-educated women as she herself was uneducated. She used irony as a means to achieve valuation to women, to gain negative attributes connected to them and to gain authority to teach them mystical spirituality, the Bible and prayer. In this ironic tendency she was a feminist writer. In order to understand medieval mysticism I have written in the first chapter a review of the main trends in medieval mysticism in connection with the classical emotional theories. Two medieval mystical theories show an important role in St Teresa s mysticism. One is love mysticism and the other is the three partite way of mysticism (purification, illumination and union). The classic-philosophical emotional theories play a role in both patterns. The theory of love mysticism St Teresa interpreted in the traditional way stressing the spiritual meaning of love in connexion with God and neighbors. Love is an emotion, which is bound with other emotions, but all objects of love don t strengthen spiritual love. In the three partite way of mysticism purification means to find biblical values in life and to practice meditative self-knowledge theologically interpreted. In illumination human understanding has to be illuminated by God and united to mystical knowledge from God. St Teresa considered illumination a way to learn things. Illumination has also psychological aspects like recognition of many trials and pains, which come from life on earth. Theologically interpreted in illumination one should die to oneself, let oneself be transformed and renewed by God. I have also written a review of the modern philosophical discussion on personal identity where memory and mental experiences are important creators of personal identity. St Teresa bound medieval mystical teaching together with her personal religious experience. Her personal identity is by its character based on her narrative life story where mental experiences play important role. Previous researchers have labelled St Teresa as an ecstatic person whose experiences produced ecstatic phenomena to the mysticism. These phenomena combined with visions have in one respect made of her a person who has brought physical and visionary tendencies to theology. In spite of that she also represents a modern tendency trying to give words to experiences, which at first seem to be exceptional and extreme and which are easily interpreted as one-sided either physical or sexual or unsaid. In other respect I have stressed the personality of St Teresa that was represented as both strong and weak. The strong personality for her is demonstrated by religious faith and in its practice. The weak personality was for her a natural personal identity. St Teresa saw a unifying aspect in almost all. Firstly, her mysticism was aimed towards union with God and secondly, the unifying aspects and common rules in human relations in community life were central. Union with God is based on the fact that in a soul God is living in its centre, where God is present in the Trinitarian way. The picture of God in ourselves is a mirror but to get to know God better is to recognize his/her presence in us. When the soul recognizes itself as a dwelling place of God, it knows itself as God knows him/herself. There is equality between God and the soul. To be a Christian means to participate in God in his Trinitarian being. The participation to God is a process of divinization that puts a person into transformation, change and renewal. The unitive aspect concludes also knowledge of opposites between experience of community and solitude as well as community and separateness. As a founder of monasteries St Teresa practiced theology of poverty. She renewed the monastic life founding a rule called discalced that stressed ascetic tendencies. Supporters of her work were after the difficulties in the beginning both society and churchly leaders. She wrote about the monasteries including in her description at times seriousness at times humor and irony. Her stories are said to be picaresque histories that contain stories of ordinary laymen and many unexpected occasions. She exercised a kind of Bakhtinian dialogue in her letters. St Teresa stressed the virtues like sacrifice, determination and courage in the monastic life. Most of what she taught of virtues is based on biblical spirituality but there are also psychological tendencies in her writings. The theological pedagogical advice is mixed with psychology, but she herself made no distinction between different aspects in her teaching. To understand St Teresa and her mysticism is to recognize that she mixes her personal religious experience and mysticism, which widens mysticism to religious experience in a new way, although this corresponds also the very definition of mysticism. St Teresa concentrated on mental-spiritual experiences and the aim of her mystical teaching was to produce a human mind well cured like a garden that has God as its gardener.

Las llagas de lo imaginario : un encuentro entre Juliana de Norwich y Adolphe Gesché

El objetivo de estas líneas es crear un ámbito de encuentro entre Juliana de Norwich, mística inglesa que vivó entre los años 1342-¿1416? y Adolphe Gesché, teólogo contemporáneo, muerto recientemente. Proponemos este encuentro a través de la categoría “imaginario”. Este imaginario puede ser vía de salida de la estrechez racionalista, de la razón desligada de otras dimensiones de lo humano. El imaginario de la herida de la mística medieval, y la pregunta por el sentido a través del imaginario que plantea el teólogo del siglo XX, pueden ser puertas abiertas y sugerentes también para la filosofía y la teología de hoy.

¿Visionaria o mística? Hildegarda de Bingen en la encrucijada de lenguaje y experiencia del misterio cristiano

Resumen: Ante la próxima proclamación de Hildegarda de Bingen como doctora de la Iglesia, anunciada por el Papa Benedicto XVI para el 7 de octubre de 2012, el artículo realiza una reflexión sobre la relación entre experiencia y lenguaje en la mística cristiana. Tras el necesario deslinde de los marcos epistemológicos en los que ha sido tratada la cuestión –histórico, fenomenológico y teológico–, plantea una respuesta integradora de ambas tradiciones sobre la base del principio estético teológico que Hans Urs von Balthasar denominó como “visión de la figura”. La tesis se apoya sobre el análisis del texto descriptivo, interpretativo y plástico del Prólogo y Primera Visión; I Parte de Scivias y sobre el Corpus epistolar que tuvieron por destinatarios a Bernardo de Claraval y a Guibert de Gembloux.

El imaginario de la luz en la mística cortés de Matilde de Magdeburgo : continuidad y transformación de la herencia hildegardiana en el siglo XIII

El artículo se propone desarrollar la continuidad y proyección de la estética de Hildegarda de Bingen en el siglo XIII a través del estudio del imaginario de la luz en la obra La luz fluyente de la divinidad de Matilde de Magdeburgo. El paso de una estética espacial de lo ígneo hacia una estética temporal de lo líquido se corresponde con la transformación del paradigma sacral feudal en el de la mística cortés, a cuyos tópicos responde la obra de esta última. La figura de Matilde, que se vuelve una con su obra, describe una curva que va desde la cosmología simbólica, por la mística cortés del Amor, hacia la mística del abismo y del desierto que brota del grito inarticulado de la cruz y que proyecta su influencia hacia el siglo XIV. En el dinamismo de la simbólica del agua y de las imágenes nupciales que acompañan a esta luz fluyente del amor, Matilde ha dejado trazadas sendas para pensar, en lenguaje estético, la experiencia de Dios en nuestro siglo XXI.

Teología mística de Gonzalo de Berceo

Resumen: El propósito de este trabajo es demostrar que el sentido esencial de la Introducción de los Milagros de Nuestra Señora de Gonzalo de Berceo consiste en la brevísima exposición poética de una especial teología mística diferente tanto de la mística especulativa cristiana medieval occidental de origen platónico o neoplatónico como de la mística amorosa cristiana occidental que tiene origen en el Cantar de los Cantares y en sus comentarios antiguos y medievales, y que esta teología mística de Gonzalo de Berceo se basa en la función mediadora de la Virgen María y en su carácter de Madre de Dios.

Mística y anuncio : un acceso ignorado a la teología trinitaria de W. Pannenberg

En el marco de la renovación actual de la teología trinitaria, el teólogo luterano W. Pannenberg es una figura emblemática. En la presente contribución se ofrece una reseña de dos “Predigten” referidas a la Trinidad, las únicas dos pláticas litúrgicas publicadas por el autor sobre el tema. La primera, de 1969, es analizada en estrecha vinculación con su ‘sucesora’, de 1998. El arco temporal que media entre ambas, el género literario y su conexión temática conforman un acceso pastoral-espiritual a la teología trinitaria pannenberguiana, acceso ‘novedoso’, en razón de la escasa atención dispensada a esos textos en la literatura secundaria referida al asunto. En la exposición del autor se ponen de relieve la amenaza en la conciencia de la fe actual que implica identificar a Dios con nuestras representaciones, a menudo no trinitarias, de un lado, la impronta escatológica de la revelación divina en la tradición judeo-cristiana, y la correspondiente problematicidad histórica de la realidad de Dios, de otro lado. A ello hay que sumar el arraigo antropológico de la religiosidad, el valor trinitario de una teología de corte paulino, y la riqueza de “la mística trinitaria” del cristianismo.

Razón y mística

Resumen: En este artículo intento relacionar la mística con la razón, mostrando que hay una razón de la mística. Es un logos analógico, un ana-logos, ya que la analogía es el recurso que han usado los místicos para conocer y expresar el misterio. Ya que se requiere una comprensión y una explicación, se usa la hermenéutica, para interpretar la experiencia mística y el lenguaje de los místicos. Pero tiene que ser una hermenéutica analógica, para que sea acorde con el instrumento conceptualizador que utilizan: la metáfora, la parábola y demás recursos cognoscitivos y expresivos que brinda la rica noción de analogía.

Sob os véus, a existência descontínua: erotismo e epifania na poesia de Manuel Bandeira

Considerando a extensa e intensa abordagem da temática erótica na poesia de Manuel Bandeira, a pesquisa visou à ampliação e ao aprofundamento do estudo desse aspecto de sua obra, com o intuito de complementar os estudos críticos que versam sobre o assunto. Nosso objetivo concentra-se na relevância do conceito de alumbramento, termo empregado em diferentes ocasiões pelo poeta. Essa palavra, que o autor emprega na sua autobiografia e em duas de suas composições, alude, simultaneamente, a uma espécie de revelação divina, capaz de proporcionar a inspiração para a criação do poema, e a uma iluminação resultante do estado de deslumbramento diante da visão da nudez feminina. Dessa forma, com base, sobretudo, nas ideias de Octavio Paz e Georges Bataille, bem como nos apontamentos específicos de Davi Arrigucci Jr. sobre o lirismo bandeiriano, buscamos comprovar, por meio da leitura analítica de poemas exemplares, a associação entre os êxtases erótico, poético e místico, como questão fundamental na obra do poeta pernambucano

A mística de Boosco deleitoso

O misticismo na Idade Média pode ser entendido como uma prática de espiritualidade que confirma a legitimidade da experiência íntima do ser humano com a divindade e desempenha uma função importante neste período histórico: ser um modo para se alcançar a relação direta e individual com Deus, num momento em que a instituição religiosa buscava a uniformização da fé, extirpando muitas práticas heterodoxas (heresias). Todavia, a mística se impõe como uma evolução natural da espiritualidade cristã no medievo ocidental, que estava submergida na razão (teologia), possibilitando ao indivíduo uma expressão mais livre e sensível da fé. O Boosco Deleitoso, classificado por estudiosos como uma obra mística, expressa esta condição emotiva da fé. O objetivo deste estudo, portanto, concentra-se em observar a mística na referente obra portuguesa. Para isso, foi preciso sustentar este trabalho em dois alicerces: a história e a psicanálise. No primeiro momento, far-se-á um estudo da espiritualidade medieval e a evolução da mística neste ambiente sociopolítico; em seguida, será traçado pontos de identificação entre o Boosco Deleitoso e os autores e autoras da mística medieval. No segundo momento, a partir de um estudo sobre a mística sob o olhar da psicanálise, buscar-se-á fazer uma abordagem literária dos discursos místicos tendo em consideração as contribuições teóricas de Freud e Lacan sobre o assunto. O corpus desta pesquisa se encontra entre os capítulos 118 e 153 do Boosco Deleitoso, parcela da obra que perceptivelmente foi influenciada pela mística medieval

"The Black Imprint of Sandals in White Mosaic Floors": H.D.'s Mythomystical Poetics

My dissertation examines the traces of inverse (mytho)mysticism, more synchronous with mythical alchemy than transcendent mystery, in H.D.’s mature work (1946-1961). Whereas H.D.’s earliest works respond to a fin de siècle occultism and a collective psyche troubled by the eschatological distress that, as Susan Acheson writes, “was widespread amongst modernist writers grappling with …world events and with the implications of Nietzsche’s inaugural annunciation of modernity in terms of the death of God” (187), her later oeuvre is dedicated to the same work of soul undertaken by the “secret cult of Night” in Vale Ave. Here, her thematic scope faces two ways: backward to ancient Greek mystery cults and their palingenesic rites and forward to depth psychologists searching for the Soul of the World. Vale Ave plays a pronounced role in my study as symbolic guide; in its seventy-four sequences the layering of time in the “trilogy” of past, present, and future that H.D. had explored during the years of the Second World War in order to get behind the fallen walls of cause and effect collapses into two distinct phases of human origin—“meeting” (evolution) and “parting” (involution)—and the poem invites Lilith and Lucifer to be its archetypal guides. My method for the study is imaginal, entering such disciplines as history, philosophy, and theology and bringing psychological understanding to them. John Walsh’s introduction to Vale Ave notes H.D.’s theme “that the human psyche exists in a dimension outside of time and space as well as within them. In Vale Ave, H.D. presents the extremity of this dual-dimensionality: metempsychosis” (vii). However, the concept that H.D. investigates is more than a literary processus of characters who adopt different masks and appear at various junctures in a chronological unwinding of history. I explore H.D.'s works as part of a Modernist tradition of writing “books of the dead” designed not to guide the soul after death, but to draw the gaze upon “a nearer thing,” as H.D. writes in Erige Cor Tuum Ad Me In Caelum, the wisdom intrinsic in the spirit of life itself.

L'Origine. Une lecture du poeme 'Radix, Matrix' de Paul Celan

This article presents a very close analysis of one poem by Paul Celan, demonstrating the important place of Jewish mysticism in his poetry and poetics.

Maria Victoria Atencia: Legend of Myself

In this collection of 65 short poems, Roberta Quance exemplifies the range, vitality and mysticism of work by one of Spain’s foremost, if controversial, contemporary female poets, drawing on the contents of a number of Spanish collections.

What is poetic attention

Tese de doutoramento, Estudos de Literatura e de Cultura (Teoria da Literatura), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2014

'It was as if she had said....': May Sinclair and reading narratives of cure

May Sinclair was one of the most widely read and successful English women novelists of the first half of the twentieth century. She had interests and themes in common with many of those now considered to have been at the heart of English modernism. In terms of formal experimentation too her concerns chime with the aesthetic innovations of, for example, pound, Eliot and Woolf. Her early interest in psychoanalysis and support for the suffrage campaign also mark her out as a modern. Despite some work from feminist literary critics and her partial categorisation as modernist, however, her work still lacks a critical framework within which it can be read. Indeed, some of the work done by feminist critics on her has paradoxically re-marginalised her. In this thesis I aim to provide one critical framework through which Sinclair's work can be read. My contention is that the occluding of one aspect of her work and thought- its movement toward intellectual, emotional and aesthetic wholeness - has marred previous critical readings of her. By paying attention to this through a focus on discourses of cure, this thesis reads Sinclair's work with an awareness of its language, cultural context and intertextual relations. Early twentieth-century medical discourse, psychoanalysis, mysticism, the chivalric and the psychical are all used to read the works. At the same time, my aim is to read Sinclair's work without eliding its difficulties. Rather, I aim to read her in a way that acknowledges the difficulties of and fraught moments in her writing as markers of its significance.