Overview

'Touching God: Hopkins and Love' is the first book devoted to love in the writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins, illuminating our understanding of him as a romantic poet. Discussions of desire in Hopkins' poetry have focused on his unrequited attraction to men. In contrast, Duc Dau turns to Luce Irigaray and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's theories of mutual touch to uncover the desire Hopkins cultivated and celebrated: his love for Christ. 'Touching God' demonstrates how descriptions of touching played a vital role in the poet's vision of spiritual eroticism. Forging a new way of reading desire and the body in Hopkins' writings, the work offers fresh interpretations of his poetry.

Full Product Details

9781783080489

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Duc Dau has written an exciting and provocative book, [...] a worthy and timely addition to the world of Hopkins scholarship, bringing a fresh, innovative, and at times deliberately challenging approach to the too-often-overlooked area of love in the writing of Hopkins. [...] Far from denying the corporeal, this approach rightly draws attention to a frequently overlooked rich spiritual eroticism found nestling at the very heart of so much of Hopkins's writing.' - Hannah Dunleavy, 'Hopkins Quarterly' '[A] fresh and frankly written study of the treatment of love in Hopkins's poetry. One thing that makes Dau's book exceptional is [...] the candour with which she joins aspects of Hopkins scholarship so often at odds with (or at least unobservant of) each other: here, interest in the theological and interest in the erotic.' -Summer J. Star 'The Year's Work in English Studies'

'Duc Dau has written an exciting and provocative book, [...] a worthy and timely addition to the world of Hopkins scholarship, bringing a fresh, innovative, and at times deliberately challenging approach to the too-often-overlooked area of love in the writing of Hopkins. [...] Far from denying the corporeal, this approach rightly draws attention to a frequently overlooked rich spiritual eroticism found nestling at the very heart of so much of Hopkins's writing.' - Hannah Dunleavy, 'Hopkins Quarterly'

'Duc Dau, to my mind, applies literary theory to Hopkins more originally, and ultimately far more helpfully, than does Derrida.' -'Victorian Poetry' 'Drawing on Hopkins's undergraduate essays, Dau balances teleological philosophy, the relationship between form and substance and representations of beauty and virtue in order to make a strong case for the value that Hopkins places on the body, particularly the perfect body of Christ.' -'Year's Work in English Studies' 'Duc Dau has written an exciting and provocative book, [...] a worthy and timely addition to the world of Hopkins scholarship, bringing a fresh, innovative, and at times deliberately challenging approach to the too-often-overlooked area of love in the writing of Hopkins. [...] Far from denying the corporeal, this approach rightly draws attention to a frequently overlooked rich spiritual eroticism found nestling at the very heart of so much of Hopkins's writing.' - Hannah Dunleavy, 'Hopkins Quarterly'

'Duc Dau has written an exciting and provocative book, [...] a worthy and timely addition to the world of Hopkins scholarship, bringing a fresh, innovative, and at times deliberately challenging approach to the too-often-overlooked area of love in the writing of Hopkins. [...] Far from denying the corporeal, this approach rightly draws attention to a frequently overlooked rich spiritual eroticism found nestling at the very heart of so much of Hopkins's writing.' - Hannah Dunleavy, 'Hopkins Quarterly' '[A] fresh and frankly written study of the treatment of love in Hopkins's poetry. One thing that makes Dau's book exceptional is [...] the candour with which she joins aspects of Hopkins scholarship so often at odds with (or at least unobservant of) each other: here, interest in the theological and interest in the erotic.' -Summer J. Star 'The Year's Work in English Studies' '[O]f great interest and real value to Hopkins scholars and to those interested in Hopkins as a man and a thinker. [...] And the book is throughout engrossing to read.' -Erik Gray, 'Victorian Studies'

Author Information

Duc Dau is an honorary research fellow in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia, where she also completed her doctorate on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available