Body in sacro-erotic literature

an example in Vita Nuova, by Dante Alighieri, and in the testimony of the transverberation of Santa Teresa D'Ávila

Abstract

Medieval literature developed between 1200 and 1350 and its subsequent evolution revealed a period of great wealth of mystical literary production, according to scholars of the history of Western mystics, such as Bernard McGinn (1998). The period is highly propitious for a preliminary investigation in which the mystique is the protagonist and, for this reason, we propose to study the concept of spiritual eroticism in excerpts from Vita Nuova (1292-1293), by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), poet, philosopher, politician and great name in Italian literature, and in the writings of Teresa D'Ávila (1515-1582), blessed, author of treatises, poems and one of the most important mystical wives of the Catholic Church. We start from the hypothesis that the erotic charge present in the mystical experience goes beyond just an ideal of corporeal pleasure, but presents, through the body, the beginning and the indications of the magnitude of spiritual experimentation. To this end, in Dante we will observe the effects of this mystical experience on the body, basing ourselves on the studies of Agamben (2007), Sturges (2012) and Santagata (2017), as well as exploring the mystical and erotic theme of Santa Teresa through her own writings about the episode of his transverberation and the treatises by Câmara (2020) and Alves (2019).