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

Denis Renevey (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0708316964 | ISBN-13: 978-0708316962 | Publication Date: October 30, 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Language, Self and Love makes accessible some of the important liturgical and lexio divina aspects of self-shaping in reading and writing, utterance and listening as reflections on motives. It is sure to have a solid impact upon how the medieval mystics are likely to be read as well as a good demonstration of historically informed, nuanced hermeneutical reading." -www.wordtrade.com/religion/ (www.wordtrade.com/religion/ )

"There is no doubt that Language, Self and Love is an original contribution to scholarship . . . Renevey has succeeded in treating the work of one of the most impenetrable of medieval authors with coolness and integrity" -Mystics Quarterly (Mystics Quarterly )

About the Author

Denis Renevey is a lecturer in Medieval Literature at the Universities of Fribourg and Neuchâtel. He is the co-editor of Writing Religious Women: Female Spiritual and Textual Practices in Late Medieval England and the author of numerous articles dealing with medieval mysticism.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: University of Wales Press (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0708316964
• ISBN-13: 978-0708316962
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,577,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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