The Transformative Power of Words

The Role of Writing in the Negation of the

Self in Mysticism and Fin’ Amor

My dissertation proposes that the literature of the mystics and the songs of the troubadours both clearly reveal a notion of self as constructed and malleable and language as instrumental in the construction and so deconstruction of self.

Not only did troubadours and mystics indeed share a number of topoi and linguistic features, but the reason for this overlap is a common understanding of what the self is and the significance of language in the formation of the self.  The dissertation makes clear that both mystics and troubadours had devised a series of language games in order to aid in the process of self-negation.  The concept of the self as constructed and the idea that one can, through talking or writing, alter the self is thus not a modern discovery but one which moves the most important love literature of the west. 

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