A Mirror Containing All It Seeth: Thomas Traherne's Contemplative Subject

This thesis surveys several works of 17th-century English cleric, theologian, and poet Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637 - 1674) to consider Traherne’s understanding of the contemplative self as formed in relation to a Divine Other, human Others, and natural objects. The paper focuses on Traherne’s use of images of mirrors and reflection to illustrate the relationally developing self in primary works concerned with contemplative formation: the Centuries of Meditation and two poetic sequences describing the experiences and perceptions of the poet’s infant persona, contained within the Dobell manuscript and the Poems of Felicity. Jacques Lacan’s speculative theory of the stade du miroir is employed to illuminate Traherne’s conception of identity as structured, reversible desire for a perceived Other or Others. The project situates Traherne within a contemplative tradition originating in the sixth century with Maximus the Confessor that includes sensory contemplation of material objects as wellas spiritually or intellectually directed meditation. Finally, the paper considers the ethical implications of Traherne’s relational model of dynamic mirroring exchange as grounded in mutual perceptions of the Divine-in-Other and suggests areas for further research.