Mary and the Eternal Feminine in the Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Given his upbringing during the Victorian era and his conversion and ordination as a Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins would seem an unlikely precursor of those who have in this era sought the full equality and dignity of women. Yet, Hopkins's Marian poems manage not only to transcend conven...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Dep.
2021
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| In: |
Religion & literature
Year: 2021, Volume: 53, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-22 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Hopkins, Gerard Manley 1844-1889
/ Maria, von Nazaret, Biblische Person
/ Femininity
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| RelBib Classification: | FD Contextual theology KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history NBJ Mariology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Given his upbringing during the Victorian era and his conversion and ordination as a Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins would seem an unlikely precursor of those who have in this era sought the full equality and dignity of women. Yet, Hopkins's Marian poems manage not only to transcend conventional piety around the image of Mary, some of which has served to denigrate all other women, but to offer fresh images that connect Mary to women, to nature, and even to an archetype of eternal wisdom. His magnificent poem "The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe" grounds Mary in metaphors of air and earth rather than elevating her above all women, as the newly dogmatized doctrine of the Immaculate Conception implies. Metaphor, not allegory, provides the stratagem for his theology, and even Mariology, of immanence. Feminist scholars such as Elizabeth Johnson, and even Marina Warner before her, have quoted appreciatively his poems on Mary, such as "The May Magnificat," where Mary is an icon of fertility and the graciousness and mercy of God the Holy Spirit. In this article, I show that Hopkins constructed the image of Mary on the one hand as ordinary woman rather than Mary Immaculate, the only woman conceived without sin, and on the other hand that his Mary is as "doubly predestined" as his Christ was doubly incarnated. One image connects his Mary to all women, and the other exalts her even beyond time and existence, into the "aeonian" time of eternal Wisdom itself. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/rel.2021.0000 |