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Gerard Manley Hopkins research final senior paper


janrand 1 / 1  
Jul 30, 2009   #1
I'm wondering if anyone can help me construct this thesis in a more concise way. Keep in mind, there are redundancies I'm aware of, but can't choose the better way of expressing. Oh, also, I don't know how I'm using the term mirror-dialectic or objective correlative, I just think it fits in somewhere. Consider this a puzzle. It's puzzling me.

"The Dialectic of Resurrection Theology in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Reconciling the Material World with the Spiritual Life as More than Comfort"

The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins introduces the reader to a world of religious thoughts, imagery and experiences brought to the foreground of the aesthetic experience. The background and foundation of his poetry is bound by the poet's theological tenets and his theories of language, in his early college years' associations and his training as a Jesuit Priest, as well as his responses to and interactions with the people he served. Key to Hopkins's success at communicating religious beliefs and glorified impressions of nature was his method of mantling his ideas in an exacting poetics that gives the reader admittance to his metaphoric theophany. One of the major themes of his theology is the incarnation and resurrection of Christ, God in the flesh according to his Catholic doctrine. Not only is this thematically covered in his poetry, but it is my opinion that through his poetic endowments Hopkins performed the act of concretizing the religious experience for the reader through (specific?) language and rhythm. In a sense he achieved the creation of what I would call a mirror-dialectic: The dialectic method of revealing God in nature (uncovering his hiding place) in theme and content is the objective correlative of "clothing with flesh" the sacred act of the Resurrection, metaphorically, through the poetry.

This requires that Hopkins do several things. Among others, he must synthesize the inscape of things--the natural or material phenomena-- with spiritual noumena or instress. Hopkins's use of language or "the word" to describe the essence or noumena of God as seen in nature sets up a conflict: Material vs. spiritual. But Christ in the flesh becomes God through the atonement. The resurrection which is the sum of both acts, is accessible to Hopkins through his extra sensory response to nature as demonstrated in his journals when he didn't write poetry ( later in the paper). This act of knowing demonstrates nature's instress, which is the noumena of God.) But A fuller appreciation of Hopkins's poetry requires of the reader an acquisition of knowledge as well: close readings of the text as well as familiarity with the basic definitions of Hopkins's unique coinage of terms (see glossology in appendix). Hopkins's skill as a poet requires the reader to know the definition of the newly coined terms he uses, and new rhythms and sound sense techniques, which although they may not have been originated by Hopkins, were formally coined.

My paper will analyze Hopkins' methods in his successful achievement of synthesizing nature's phenomenology with the metaphysical or spiritual "things in themselves" (instress) or to us a term from his mentor, Duns Scotus, haecceitas: The stresses inherent in nature are a manifestation of God.
EF_Simone 2 / 1,986  
Jul 30, 2009   #2
Is this a stand-alone prospectus for a paper or is this the introduction to the paper?

Hopkins's skill as a poet requires the reader to know the definition of the newly coined terms he uses, and new rhythms and sound sense techniques, which although they may not have been originated by Hopkins, were formally coined.

Is that true? Did readers of Hopkin's poems need to know the definitions of the words he coined as well as the theories upon which he based his sprung rhythm approach? If so, he wasn't a very skillful poet!
EF_Sean 6 / 3,491  
Aug 1, 2009   #3
The dialectic method of revealing God in nature (uncovering his hiding place) in theme and content is the objective correlative of "clothing with flesh" the sacred act of the Resurrection, metaphorically, through the poetry.

I'm pretty sure you are in fact misusing the term "objective correlative." For the term to make sense, you would need to be discussing how a series of images or sense perceptions give rise naturally to a particular emotion. In what sense does the dialectic method function to present a series of sensory perceptions? And what emotion would it give rise to? The sublime, or the emotional experience thereof? And why should the dialectic method in particular be appropriate for evoking this emotion?
OP janrand 1 / 1  
Aug 11, 2009   #4
Thanks for your reply. I wasn't notified by email like I thought but happened to open the website. The only reason an english student would be helped in knowing certain Hopkins coinage, is because he invented terms for things. He was fascinated with the English language as were all classic etc. scholars of the victorian era. Language rules were still evolving. Also, it wasn't the prospectus, but the introduction/thesis. I've changed it quite a bit since my first post. Here's my latest draft. I plan on dividing my "evidence" in three sections (organizing principle), "philology or psuedo philology" of the times, GMH's technical skills (including metaphor, rhythm, basic scansion), and then under philosophy section, lay out the dialectic and platonic issues in his poetry (minus the objective correlative, thanks Sean) My approach is formal/historical and possibly new historicism if I can manage that.

"The Dialectic of Resurrection Theology in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Reconciling the Material World with the Spiritual Life as More than Comfort"

The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins introduces the reader to a world of religious thoughts, imagery and experiences brought to the foreground of the aesthetic experience. The background and foundation of his poetry is built or designed by the poet's theological tenets, his study of language theories, combined with the Victorian era's fascination and evolution of these theories, and his training as a Jesuit Priest. Keys to unlocking the phenomenal power of Hopkins's art include several contemporary aspects of the Victorian era: his interest in Philology and what has been termed "phonosemantics" (endnote glossary), etymology, dialectology etc.; his interest in the power of metaphor through language, as well as his studies in the classics including philosophy. My paper will analyze Hopkins' successful methods of synthesizing nature's phenomenology with the metaphysical or spiritual "things in themselves," and the way these methods support his theology of the resurrection of Christ; in other words not only is resurrection theology covered in his poetry, but through his poetic endowments Hopkins performs the act of concretizing the religious experience for the reader. I still don't think my introduction is well-organized.

Hopkins communicated his religious beliefs and glorified impressions of nature by mantling his ideas in an exacting poetics that gives the reader tangible access to his metaphoric theophany.

PHILOSOPHY SECTION: Christ in the flesh becomes God through the atonement. This resurrection dialectic which is the sum or resolution of both entities, is accessible to Hopkins through his extra sensory response to nature as demonstrated during his fallow period when he wrote details of nature experiences in his journal.


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