Closet DevotionsDuke University Press, 1998 - 193 páginas Religion and sex, body and soul, sacred and profane: In Closet Devotions, Richard Rambuss traces the relays between these cultural formations by examining the issue of "sacred eroticism," the literary or artistic expression of devotional feelings in erotic terms that has repeatedly occurred over the centuries. Rather than dismissing such expression as mere convention, Rambuss takes it seriously as a form of erotic discourse, one that gives voice to desires that, outside the sphere of sacred rapture, would otherwise be deemed taboo. Through startling rereadings of works ranging from the devotional verse of the metaphysical poets (Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, and Traherne) to photographer Andres Serrano's controversial "Piss Christ," from Renaissance religious iconography to contemporary gay porn, Rambuss uncovers the highly charged erotic imagery that suffuses religious devotional art and literature. And he explores one of Christian culture's most guarded (and literal) closets--the prayer closet itself, a privileged space where the vectors of same-sex desire can travel privately between the worshiper and his or her God. Elegantly written and theoretically astute, Closet Devotions illuminates the ways in which sacred Christian devotion is homoeroticized, a phenomenon that until now has gone unexplored in current scholarship on religion, the body, and its passions. This book will attract readers across a wide array of disciplines, including gay and lesbian studies, literary theory and criticism, Renaissance studies, and religion. |
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affective amorous Andres Serrano Bataille Batter my heart Brooks Bynum Christ's body Church cited closet devotion closet prayer corporeal cultural devo devotion's devotional desire divine Donne Donne's early modern ecstatic English epigram erotic essay expression female figure friendship Further references supplied Ganymede gender God's Heaven Herbert heterosexual Heywood Holy Feast Holy Sonnets homoerotic homoeroticism Homosexuality Jesus John John Donne John Saltmarsh Jonathan Goldberg Leo Steinberg likewise lines literature London Lord lover lyric male body Marsden Hartley medieval Meditation metaphorical metaphysical Metaphysical Poetry notion Oliver Heywood Passion penetrated perverse Piss Christ pleasure poem poet poetry prayer closet private devotion Privy Key ravished Redemption religion religious devotion Renaissance Richard Crashaw sacred eroticism Schoenfeldt secret sensual sermon Serrano seventeenth-century Sexuality of Christ social sodomy soul spiritual Steinberg sweet thee Thomas Traherne thou thy Closet tion Traherne transgressive University Press verse Wentworth Wettenhall wounds York