Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs

The article engages with the protagonist of The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Michèle Roberts, first published in 1984 as The Wild Girl. Filipczak discusses scholarly publications that analyze the role of Mary Magdalene, and redeem her from the sexist bias which reduced her to a repentant whore...

Πλήρης περιγραφή

Αποθηκεύτηκε σε:
Λεπτομέρειες βιβλιογραφικής εγγραφής
Κύριος συγγραφέας: Filipczak, Dorota
Μορφή: Online
Γλώσσα:Αγγλικά
Έκδοση: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego 2025
Θέματα:
Διαθέσιμο Online:ONIX_20250307_9788383313986_2014
Ετικέτες: Προσθήκη ετικέτας
Δεν υπάρχουν, Καταχωρήστε ετικέτα πρώτοι!
_version_ 1869519814761906176
author Filipczak, Dorota
author_browse Filipczak, Dorota
author_facet Filipczak, Dorota
author_sort Filipczak, Dorota
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The article engages with the protagonist of The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Michèle Roberts, first published in 1984 as The Wild Girl. Filipczak discusses scholarly publications that analyze the role of Mary Magdalene, and redeem her from the sexist bias which reduced her to a repentant whore despite the lack of evidence for this in the Gospels. The very same analyses demonstrate that the role of Mary Magdalene as Christ’s first apostle silenced by patriarchal tradition was unique. While Roberts draws on the composite character of Mary Magdalene embedded in the traditional association between women, sexuality and sin, she also moves far beyond this, by reclaiming the female imaginary as an important part of human connection to the divine. At the same time, Roberts recovers the conjunction between sexuality and spirituality by framing the relationship of Christ and Mary Magdalene with The Song of Songs, which provides the abject saint from Catholic tradition with an entirely different legacy of autonomy and expression of female desire, be it sexual, maternal or spiritual. The intertext connected with The Song of Songs runs consistently through The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene. This, in turn, sensitizes the readers to the traces of the Song in the Gospels, which never quote from it, but they rely heavily on the association between Christ and the Bridegroom, while John 20 shows the encounter between the risen Christ and Mary Magdalene in the garden whose imagery is strongly suggestive of the nuptial meeting in The Song of Songs.
format Online
id doab-20.500.12854ir-156364
institution Directory of Open Access Books
language eng
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
publisherStr Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
record_format ojs
spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1563642025-03-07T15:13:42Z Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs Filipczak, Dorota woman artist feminism Dorota Filipczak The article engages with the protagonist of The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Michèle Roberts, first published in 1984 as The Wild Girl. Filipczak discusses scholarly publications that analyze the role of Mary Magdalene, and redeem her from the sexist bias which reduced her to a repentant whore despite the lack of evidence for this in the Gospels. The very same analyses demonstrate that the role of Mary Magdalene as Christ’s first apostle silenced by patriarchal tradition was unique. While Roberts draws on the composite character of Mary Magdalene embedded in the traditional association between women, sexuality and sin, she also moves far beyond this, by reclaiming the female imaginary as an important part of human connection to the divine. At the same time, Roberts recovers the conjunction between sexuality and spirituality by framing the relationship of Christ and Mary Magdalene with The Song of Songs, which provides the abject saint from Catholic tradition with an entirely different legacy of autonomy and expression of female desire, be it sexual, maternal or spiritual. The intertext connected with The Song of Songs runs consistently through The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene. This, in turn, sensitizes the readers to the traces of the Song in the Gospels, which never quote from it, but they rely heavily on the association between Christ and the Bridegroom, while John 20 shows the encounter between the risen Christ and Mary Magdalene in the garden whose imagery is strongly suggestive of the nuptial meeting in The Song of Songs. 2025-03-07T15:13:40Z 2025-03-07T15:13:40Z 2024 chapter ONIX_20250307_9788383313986_2014 9788383313986 9788383313979 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/156364 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://www.press.uni.lodz.pl/index.php/wul/catalog/book/874 Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego 10.18778/8331-397-9.09 10.18778/8331-397-9.09 83bfe9c9-323d-4283-b087-d859fd9af314 9788383313986 9788383313979 133-145 open access
spellingShingle woman
artist
feminism
Dorota Filipczak
Filipczak, Dorota
Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs
title Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs
title_full Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs
title_fullStr Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs
title_full_unstemmed Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs
title_short Chapter “Let me hear Thy voice”: Michèle Roberts’s Refiguring of Mary Magdalene in the Light of The Song of Songs
title_sort chapter let me hear thy voice michele roberts s refiguring of mary magdalene in the light of the song of songs
topic woman
artist
feminism
Dorota Filipczak
topic_facet woman
artist
feminism
Dorota Filipczak
url ONIX_20250307_9788383313986_2014
work_keys_str_mv AT filipczakdorota chapterletmehearthyvoicemichelerobertssrefiguringofmarymagdaleneinthelightofthesongofsongs