This thesis examines the Castilian work of Fray Luis de
Leon from the perspective of phenomenological hermeneutics as a
literary approach. I discuss the lack of serious studies on
16th Century Spanish poetic theory, and propose that Fray Luis
de Leon’s work offers a model of literary theory and creation
that can be considered a philosophical poetics, in contrast to
the rhetorical approach of Renaissance humanistic poetics.
I examine the formation of Fray Luis de Leon’s literary
work as a process that follows four stages of both hermeneutic
understanding and literary creation. I examine the first stage
in his translations of Horace and Virgil, his rendering of
Tuscan lyric love poetry, and his interpretation of the Psalms.
In the literary structuring of his work, I identify images and
poetic devices he later expands into all his work.
Simultaneously, I suggest that throughout his work, Fray Luis
understood the role of language in its literary function as a
way to describe reality.
In stage two, I analyze Fray Luis de Leon’s biblical
expositions, confirming the first stage findings. Fray Luis
develops the meaning of poetic configuration, relating it to the
literary function of Scripture. The interplay between the
biblical text and his reflection on his own reality, forms a
sub-text representing a true literary theory. First he attempts
a practical literary work in La perfecta casada, a biblical
commentary with clear literary pretensions.
I extensively analyze Fray Luis de Leon’s main prose work,
De los nombres de Cristo as a literary structure resulting from
his reflection on literature’s role in understanding reality.
Therefore, I approach this important work as literature, not
simply as a philosophical treatise or as piece of superb
writing. I use Aristotle’s categories, interpreted by Northrop
Frye and Paul Ricoeur. Following Frye, literature is a
symbolic, verbal structure with different levels of meaning; a
structure which in the process of its configuration, gives
understanding to the poet and reveals reality. Ricoeur
suggests, following Augustine and Aristotle, that the
configurating process attempts to redescribe reality to
understand it.
De los nombres thus expresses the poet’s understanding and
insight into the configurative process of the Scriptures,
offering it as a way to produce in the reader a poetic
experience that is the true experience of reality’s structure.
Fray Luis organizes the verbal structures of his work, the
“nombres” (names), so the characters of his dialogue, as they
discuss the meaning of the names, themselves go through
different stages of understanding while literally moving through
a physical setting configured by language symbolic of mythical
ascent and descent.
a practical literary work in La perfecta casada, a biblical
commentary with clear literary pretensions.
I extensively analyze Fray Luis de Leon’s main prose work,
De los nombres de Cristo as a literary structure resulting from
his reflection on literature’s role in understanding reality.
Therefore, I approach this important work as literature, not
simply as a philosophical treatise or as piece of superb
writing. I use Aristotle’s categories, interpreted by Northrop
Frye and Paul Ricoeur. Following Frye, literature is a
symbolic, verbal structure with different levels of meaning; a
structure which in the process of its configuration, gives
understanding to the poet and reveals reality. Ricoeur
suggests, following Augustine and Aristotle, that the
configurating process attempts to redescribe reality to
understand it.
De los nombres thus expresses the poet’s understanding and
insight into the configurative process of the Scriptures,
offering it as a way to produce in the reader a poetic
experience that is the true experience of reality’s structure.
Fray Luis organizes the verbal structures of his work, the
“nombres” (names), so the characters of his dialogue, as they
discuss the meaning of the names, themselves go through
different stages of understanding while literally moving through
a physical setting configured by language symbolic of mythical
ascent and descent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/3157 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Alcántara-Mejía, José Ramón |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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