'Voix' and 'parole': Interdiscursive Voice Regimes in French and Italian Meditation Literature from the 16th and 17th Century

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Stephanie Wodianka
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 465714057

In the aftermath of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the relation between verbal prayer and mental prayer was revalued: inner prayer should be given preference. This new formula, that entered the Catechism of Trent and was issued to priests in all congregations, will be at the starting point of the following literary research project. Both the enhancement and the dissociation of the inner prayer from the verbal one brought about new challenges for practitioners in the contexts of counter-reformation: On the one hand and most importantly, the new preference implied a relative ‘liberation’ from the (predetermined) word; on the other hand, what followed from this new freedom, was also a new obligation. Individual practitioners had to find their own words and voice. My research project aims firstly at carving out the literary and cultural historic potential of both this new freedom and simultaneously uncertain obligation. Secondly, light will be shed on the consequences of Tridentine voice formation in interdiscursive contexts (retorics, opera, courtly conversation, lecture). Has the question emerging from the charge to differentiate or even to mark a difference between self-creating and dictated word suggested the literarization of prayers and mediation? And in how far has the distinction between inner-mental and external-vocal voice lead to self-reflexivity of prayer and meditation literature in relation to voice and voicedness? Whose voice is uttered in prayer and meditation, and what are its aesthetic qualities?The project’s innovative character is firstly its understanding of meditation writing (e.g. devotional exercises and poems) as performative literature and secondly its focus on interdiscursive crossings resulting from an (apparently) ‘exclusively’ religious process of voice formation. The Tridentine question of voice radiates at the same time on a variety of contemporary discourses. In the same way it enhanced theoretical reflection of voice regimes, the (practical) use of voice was affected. Much more so: It is the view of the variety and interconnectedness of contemporary voice regimes and uses that has been marking the performativity of inner prayer voices and its resulting literary potentials. The comparative analysis of this cultural challenge, that has so far only been conducted with either a focus on France or Italy, is a major desideratum.The project’s focus will be on the semantic potential of voice and utterance, within which two main strands of analysis shall be marked that are linked through interdependent and historically locatable voice regimes. Project A) will engage in a comparative analysis of cultural ascriptions leading to (pre)national imprints on French and Italian prayer and meditation writing; project B) will deal with the topic of voice gendering. It shall be pointed out that through uttering ‘female’ and ‘male’ (masked or appropriated) voices new aesthetic means of legitimization were generated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants