STOCK, BUD, AND FLOWERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MYSTICISM IN BOHME, BLAKE, AND COLERIDGE
Abstract
In all probability mysticism has been connected with man's spiritual life for millennia, and during most of that time poetic literature has been its chosen vehicle of expression. The comparison of Jacob Bohme, the great seventeenth century German mystic, with William Blake and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, two of England's most influential poets, can contribute to the ongoing revival of interest in mystical literature. Chapter one of this dissertation discusses the technical definitions of mysticism. Chapter two discusses the historical development of mystical literature, for it is this root and trunk, this "stock," which engenders the branch from which Bohme, and then Blake and Coleridge, sprout. In the development of the stock, Plato, Plotinus, and the Pseudo-Areopagite play important roles. Saints Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Bernard inform the mystical spirit of the Middle Ages. Eckhart has, of course, a specialized and heavy influence on Bohme. Chapter three analyzes Jacob Bohme, his thematology and style, and compares his work to William Blake's visionary poetry, including The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and The Book of Thel. Blake's dialectic of good and evil operates in the broad tradition of dialectical ontology identified, at least thematically, with Bohme. Blake often resorts, also, to the same image motifs as Bohme. Chapter four compares Jacob Bohme's writing to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poetry, and some of his prose. Bohme's influence, mediated of course through many sources, seems to affect several important Coleridgean image-clusters. The conclusion to the dissertation tries to relate the several above-mentioned factors to each other. As a Latvian immigrant, now eighty-one years of age, I offer this dissertation as a form of service, but also as an act of appreciation to the American public and academic community.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Comparative literature
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