Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

History

First Advisor

Kathryn Edwards

Second Advisor

Andrew D. Berns

Abstract

This paper examines the writings of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) through the methodological lens of the history of emotions, arguing that her mystical accounts represent a crucial yet understudied contribution to our understanding of early modern emotional frameworks. Through close textual analysis of Teresa's major works, this study demonstrates how her detailed articulations of spiritual ecstasy, divine love, and religious melancholy offer unique insights into both the religious and secular emotional landscapes of Counter-Reformation Spain. Teresa's innovative emotional vocabulary, which combined traditional Catholic devotional language with embodied metaphors and spatial conceptualizations, allowed her to navigate the complex ecclesiastical politics of her era while simultaneously developing sophisticated taxonomies of affective states that challenged contemporary understandings of emotional experience. This research contributes to ongoing scholarly conversations about gendered dimensions of religious emotions, the relationship between embodiment and spirituality in mystical discourse, and the historical emergence of emotional introspection as a form of self-knowledge. By positioning Teresa's work as a significant case study within the history of emotions, this paper illuminates how religious experience served as a crucial site for emotional innovation, negotiation, and expression in early modern European culture.

Rights

© 2025, Jillian Louise Breeden

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