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Title: The Textuality of Mystical Experiences
Subtitle: Mysticism as Literature and Theory of Literary Criticism
Author(s): OFILADA MINA, Macario
Journal: Studies in Spirituality
Volume: 11    Date: 2000   
Pages: 28-46
DOI: 10.2143/SIS.11.0.505275

Abstract :
Various theories of literary criticism are helpful in the understanding of mysticism. Insofar as it is scientifically knowable, mysticism is textual, and the texts represents the culminating stage of the mystical experience. Experianciality is the key to understanding mysticism and its affinity with the literary because literature is the textualization of significant human experiences. In determining experienciality, one is confronted with the mutual antagonism between the three literary taxonomical elements: author, reader, and text. A mystical text lies in its mystagogical capibility, the area accessible to literary theory. A better understanding of the techniques, principles, etc., of mystical texts and their interpretation is key to the establishment of spirituality, under whose broad spectrum mysticism thematically pertains as an academic discipline.

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