Anna Nowalk

Major: Theology and Religious Studies, Music

Biography: Anna Nowalk is a senior at FCLC. She is currently a Duffy Fellow through Fordham's Center on Religion and Culture. After graduating, she plans to pursue graduate school for theology.

Project Title: “Wounded by Love”: Suffering in Love Mysticism (and Musical Theatre): A Cabaret

Faculty Mentor: Robert Davis, Department of Theology

Abstract: There is an abundance of love songs within the musical theatre genre. There is a history of Christians using romantic and erotic language to talk about the human-Divine relationship. When the "you" of a song is ambiguous when removed from its original context, it can be sung as "You," and performed to express love, longing, and pain in a human-Divine relationship. This project takes the form of a cabaret, a medium in which songs can be sung separated from their source material. This allows for human-Divine relationships to be mapped onto show tunes. This project was developed using primary and secondary theological sources, as well as recorded performances and live cabarets to assist with the project's more artistic aspects. In the cabaret, I discuss the Song of Songs and commentaries on this book, utilize songs written by Stephen Sondheim to illustrate the trajectory described in Richard of St. Victor's "The Four Degrees of Violent Love," and reflect upon the curious fact that love and longing for the Divine has been described in the works of some mystics as a painful experience.