Wonder, Touch, and Subjectivity in Scève's Délie

Abstract

This article explores embodiment and the search for knowledge of self precipitated by falling in love in Scève's Délie (1544). Scève's version of the ‘look of love’ draws together divergent elements: wonder (distal, associated with the mind) and touch (associated with contiguity and the body). The meaning of Scève's wondrous ‘poingnant' veue’ exceeds prevailing theories of vision/knowledge and Petrarchan poetics. Wonder initiates the desire for knowledge, but this look penetrates, therefore touches: what is happening physiologically, emotionally, epistemologically, and poetically? Focus on wonder's and touch's operations sheds light on the text's representation of love, knowledge, and embodied subjectivity.