Rolfe, Michael L;
(2011)
Lope de Vega's Religious Voices.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text
Rolfe_10221250_thesis.pdf Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This study investigates Lope de Vega’s religious language in a cross-section of his poetic and dramatic works. Chosen as the most significant examples of his religious poetry, they comprise Isidro (1599), Pastores de Belén (1612), Rimas sacras (1614), and Los soliloquios amorosos de un alma a Dios (1626). They also include two Saint’s Plays, Lo fingido verdadero and Barlán y Josafá. The thesis explores the relationship between the poetic expression of the author and prevailing religious discourses. It shows how the voices and constructed literary personae correspond with the self-fashioning characteristic of his work. The conspicuous presence of the authorial figure draws attention to the links between art and life, advancing biographic readings simultaneously frustrated by the metafictional nature of the texts. In examining the tensions between poetic and religious objectives inherent in the artistic process, the metaliterary qualities of the works are shown to conflict with the aim of inducing spiritual devotion and piety, whilst dramatic and poetic excess overwhelm and undermine the ostensible devotional purpose. Implicit in the ambivalent language are alternative readings that occupy an indeterminate space between simple appropriation of religious material for poetic ends and the articulation of voices of troubled, emergent Baroque selfhood, a situation that reflects the heterodox religious landscape of early modern Spain presented in recent scholarship. The thesis posits that, by straying into the religious genre, bound by its own set of conventions, the language consciously tests the role writer and reader play in artistic interpretation and religious devotion and explores the interaction between them.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Lope de Vega's Religious Voices |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10221250 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
