Touching God

Touching God: Hopkins and Love is the first book devoted to love in the writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins, illuminating our understanding of him as a romantic poet. Discussions of desire in Hopkins poetry have focused on his unrequited attraction to men. In contrast, Duc Dau turns to Luce Irigaray and Maurice Merleau-Pontys theories of mutual touch to uncover the desire Hopkins cultivated and celebrated: his love for Christ. Touching God demonstrates how descriptions of touching played a vital role in the poets vision of spiritual eroticism. Forging a new way of reading desire and the body in Hopkins writings, the work offers fresh interpretations of his poetry.