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Document Details :

Title: Created to Praise
Subtitle: Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ignatius of Loyola
Author(s): BALLINGER, Philip
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 22    Issue: 2   Date: summer 1997   
Pages: 153-180
DOI: 10.2143/LS.22.2.542286

Abstract :
In the realm of aesthetic expression, few explicitly Catholic artists have captured the consciousness of the modern age as has Gerard Manley Hopkins. Dying in relative obscurity in 1889, his poetry was not published until 1917. Even then, it did not gain wide recognition until after 1930. Thus, an oft misunderstood and ill-appreciated artist in his own time, Hopkins became, anachronistically, the celebrated poet of modernity in the twentieth century. Since 1930, hundreds of articles have been written about Hopkins' influence and meaning by scholars from diverse academic domains. Though his work is claimed and mined by critics and admirers from areas as varied as English literature, theology, ethics, aesthetics, and social history, one contentious question is certainly in the midst of the field – how and to what degree was Hopkins influenced in his thought and poetry by Ignatius of Loyola and the Spiritual Exercises? This article intends to present and critique the main lines of thought on this central question in Hopkins studies. The author additionally hopes to present an alternate and new point of view on this touchstone issue in Hopkinsian criticism.


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