William of Saint-Thierry and the Acoustics of Mystical Union

Abstract

abstract:This article explores the ways William of Saint-Thierry performs sound writing, a writing about sound that invites readers to reinterrogate their relationship with the original text and explore its sound possibilities. As well, this article considers the very notion of exegetical writing to be an exploration of sensual principles. In the case of William of Saint-Thierry's Exposition on the Song of Songs, William takes the reader through a sonic journey of the body and soul in order to explore avenues of worship that are not scopic in their focus. William's approach to unio mystica with God is through the mouth and the ear—paralinguistic sound becomes the sound event in which union with God is realized.