This book is concerned with matters of representation and failure, especially insofar as they indicate deep and often startling truths about the nature of spiritual and theological reflection. This volume turns to poets such as Celan, Wallace Stevens, Adrienne Rich, Giovanni Pascoli and Giorgio Caproni because they are all poets who sought directly to enter into the struggle with oppression that takes place within language. They illuminate the tensions present within the failures of representation in a profound manner. The path this study of poetic struggle against oppression and representatio ... More

This book is concerned with matters of representation and failure, especially insofar as they indicate deep and often startling truths about the nature of spiritual and theological reflection. This volume turns to poets such as Celan, Wallace Stevens, Adrienne Rich, Giovanni Pascoli and Giorgio Caproni because they are all poets who sought directly to enter into the struggle with oppression that takes place within language. They illuminate the tensions present within the failures of representation in a profound manner. The path this study of poetic struggle against oppression and representation takes is one that links these tensions with various contemporary continental thinkers whose work continues to highlight the vast philosophical and theological stakes at play within these poetic endeavors. There has been much philosophical speculation on the potential failure of language as well as the search for a presentation of the “thing itself” beyond representation. Here, the book pursues the writings of a trio of philosophers, Jacques Derrida, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Giorgio Agamben—very much in that order—as prime examples of how modern poetry presents us with a profitable vantage point from which to survey these ongoing struggles of living in a highly fragmented (post)modern world. Alongside these thinkers, this book looks specifically at the form of ‘spirituality’ that is given shape by this intersecting of poetics and theological-philosophical reflection. Such a focal point takes shape in the author’s reflections on how poets’ and philosophers’ understanding of poetics and religious identity were offering rich suggestions about our “spiritual” nature.