Sponsored by Marygrove College’s Department of English & Modern Languages;  Department of Philosophy, Religious Studies & Humanities; The Marygrove Women’s Center 

Yaakov Mascetti, PhD:  “Your tearefull eyes, beheld his eies more bright”: Aemilia Lanyer’s Feminine Vision of the Eucharist in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum

Aemilia Lanyer was the first Englishwoman to publicly identify herself as a professional poet with the publication of Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, published in 1611—the same year as the King James Bible. In this lecture, Mascetti will address Lanyer’s use of scopic metaphors within the context of early seventeenth century Protestant idioms of devotion and sight, arguing that the aim of the poetess’ work was not only to re-write Christ’s passion or Original Sin, nor a simple bid for patronage, but was a feminine re-conception of seeing, reading, and believing which clashed with contemporary ideas of vision and cognition. What Lanyer was doing in her poems was to reconceive both her role as a poet and that of the reader’s as the two sides of an optic and Eucharistic encounter. 

Yaakov Mascetti is an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at Bar Ilan University, Jerusalem, Israel. His work focuses on metaphysical poetry, early-modern conceptions of sight and cognition, the role of occultism in the rise of modernity, and definitions of femininity in early-modern English literature. He is completing his first book on John Donne and alchemy and is working on a book-long project on early-modern English sermons under the auspices of the Israel Science Foundation.

Monday, April 8, 7:00 pm Denk Chapman Hall

Marygrove College 8425 West McNichols Road, Detroit, MI 48221

Questions: contact Dr. Michael Martin (313) 927-1432  mmartin@marygrove.edu