Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2020 Holy Estrangement: The Poetics of Estrangement in John Donne's Divine Poems and Sermons Anton Bergstrom [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Bergstrom, Anton, "Holy Estrangement: The Poetics of Estrangement in John Donne's Divine Poems and Sermons" (2020). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 2250. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2250 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HOLY ESTRANGEMENT: THE POETICS OF ESTRANGEMENT IN JOHN DONNE’S DIVINE POEMS AND SERMONS by Anton Erik Bergstrom Bachelor of Arts Honours, University of Saskatchewan, 2007 Master of Arts, Queen’s University, 2008 DISSERTATION Submitted to the Department of English and Film Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy in English and Film Studies Wilfrid Laurier University © Anton Erik Bergstrom 2020 i Abstract This dissertation examines literary estrangement, that is the act and effect of making the familiar strange in a literary work, in the religious poems and sermons of the poet-preacher John Donne (1572–1631). My study uncovers and explores what Donne “estranges,” how he achieves this, and for what purpose, as well as the practices and modes of thinking that shaped his poetics. In Donne’s religious verse and prose, making the familiar and traditional tropes, images, doctrines, and events of Christianity strange forms active readers and revitalizes those elements, imbuing them with newfound interest, significance, and affective power. My study offers a reassessment of Donne’s uniqueness as a poet and preacher, as well as of the nature of metaphysical poetry more generally, by emphasizing the strange features of Donne’s writings as the product of specific rhetorical “devices of estrangement.” Although the Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of “defamiliarization” informs this project, my study breaks new ground by situating Donne’s poetics of estrangement in the literary-rhetorical theory of late Renaissance England. Donne’s writings reflect important features of a tradition advocating the uses and value of figurative strangeness, from Aristotle, Horace, and Augustine in antiquity, to Aquinas and Geoffrey of Vinsauf in the Middle Ages, to the rhetoricians and literary theorists of sixteenth-century England. New readings of George Puttenham’s The Art of English Poesy, Henry Peacham’s The Garden of Eloquence, and John Hoskins’ Directions for Speech and Style reveal the close connection between figurative language and estrangement. My study catalogues and analyzes a number of prominent rhetorical figures which these theorists recognized as producing, or which they indirectly associated with, the estrangement effect, and upon which Donne relied in his writings. The broader cultural “discourse of strangeness” as well as post-Reformation theology and religious culture also shaped Donne’s poetics. Close analysis of Donne’s religious works—including his emblematic poems, “The Cross” (Cross) and “Upon the Annunciation and Passion” (Annun); his long liturgical poem, “A ii Litany” (Lit); his Holy Sonnets, particularly “Spit in my face” (HSSpit), “Since she whom I loved” (HSShe), “Show me dear Christ” (HSShow), and “O to vex me” (HSVex);1 and his sermons, particularly his five on the Book of Job—reveals important features of Donne’s poetics. The estrangement effect plays a significant role in Donne’s rhetorical and devotional strategies. He frequently deploys multiple devices of estrangement in describing the central mysteries of Christianity—such as the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection—in order to renew attention to the original strangeness of Christian doctrine. These devices also express important authorial and cultural desires, anxieties, and tensions, pointing to concerns about wit, invention, and originality as well as conformity to literary and biblical tradition and Church of England orthodoxy. Estrangement functions as both technique and theme in Donne’s writings: Donne uses devices of estrangement to articulate themes of divine strangeness as well as to convey fallen humankind’s estrangement from God, others, and self. The estrangement effect is also a means to produce “holy estrangement”: that is, the disruption of the reader’s or auditor’s worldly habits of thought in order to encourage reconciliation with God. My study reveals Donne’s religious poems and sermons to be some of the foremost expressions of the cultural trope of estrangement in early seventeenth-century English literature. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of my advisory committee for their years of effort and advice guiding this project to completion: to Anne Russell, my supervisor, for taking on my proposal and patiently helping me to form vague impressions into a rigorous research project; to Robin Waugh, for his many strategic comments encouraging me to think more systematically and to more clearly and carefully prove my claims; to Viviana Comensoli, who served eight years as a consummate editor, vigilant proofreader, and general authority on all things English Renaissance; and to Lynn Shakinovsky, who enthusiastically joined the project and diligently read the manuscript when urgency was required. I also thank my committee for helping me to defamiliarize my original thoughts about Donne and Shklovksy, urging me to historicize Donne’s poetics by digging into the rich mines of Renaissance rhetoric handbooks. I extend my appreciation to Jeanne Shami, for her rigorous questions, generous comments, and warm professionalism as the external examiner for my defence. My thanks to the faculty at Laurier, particularly Katherine Spring, Maria DiCenzo, Jing Jing Chang, and Eleanor Ty, for their revivifying encouragement at different stages in the long distance run of writing a dissertation. Thanks to Gwynn Dujardin for suggesting during my Master’s program at Queen’s that Bertolt Brecht’s “alienation effect” might illuminate Donne’s “shock tactic” in the Holy Sonnets, which marked the genesis of this project. And my appreciation to Brent Nelson, for sparking my passion for the strange, challenging, and fascinating literature of the seventeenth-century as an undergraduate at the University of Saskatchewan. This dissertation draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. My doctoral research was also supported in part by the Ontario Graduate Scholarships Program. I would like to thank my parents, Donald and Naomi, for their endless support in every way. To my mom, for always bolstering my confidence ever since I was a little boy. To my dad, iv for modelling what the hard work of being a professor looks like as well as the rewards of the contemplative life. I thank my older brother, Anders (who achieved his PhD before me) for always leading the way, and my younger brother, Aren, for helping me to keep one foot (or at least one toe) outside of academia, as a means to refresh and reorient. I thank my mother-in-law, Patti Woods, for boarding me several nights a week when I would drive in to Waterloo from Toronto in the early years of the program, and for watching the boys once a week this last year so I could finish revisions to the dissertation. Above all, I would like to thank my wife, Lauren, for her immense support and help and perseverance in the long-suffering of being a “dissertation widow” (as a good friend once termed it). And to my two boys, Erik and Ben, who were born and have grown up amid my study of Donne. You are always the best figures for revitalization—for reawakening me, amid the repetitions of academic research, to the wonders of the living world. v Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgments iii Introduction: Donne’s Poetics of Estrangement: Critical and Historical Contexts 1 Chapter 1: Strange Conveyances: English Renaissance Literary-Rhetorical Theory and 59 Donne’s Devices of Estrangement Chapter 2: “Strange harmony”: Devices of Estrangement in Donne’s Emblematic and 106 Liturgical Religious Poems Chapter 3: “His strange love still admire”: The Estrangement Effect in the Holy Sonnets 142 Chapter 4: “I am not alwayes I”: Estrangement as Technique and Theme in Donne’s 181 Sermons Notes 251 Appendix: List of Short Forms of Reference for Donne’s Poetic Works 294 Bibliography 296 1 Introduction: Donne’s Poetics of Estrangement: Critical and Historical Contexts Figurative speech is a novelty of language evidently (and yet not absurdly) estranged from the ordinary habit and manner of our daily talk and writing. George Puttenham, The Art of English Poesy Oft from new proofes, and new phrase, new doubts grow, As strange attire aliens the men wee know. John Donne, “To the Countess of Bedford [‘You have refined me’]” (BedfRef) This dissertation studies literary estrangement in the religious poems and sermons of the poet-preacher John Donne (1571/722–1631). By “estrangement” I mean specifically the action and effect of making the familiar strange in a literary work—but always with an eye on the ordinary relational meanings, indicating “separation, withdrawal, alienation in feeling or affection.”3 The Oxford