Matthew Leveille

Adjunct Lecturer

Email: [[mcleveille]]
Interests: Hinduism; Religions of South Asia; Sanskrit Poetry (kāvya), devotional poetry (stotra), and poetics (alaṃkāraśāstra); Hindu devotion (bhakti); Hermeneutics; Religion and Literature
Office: Available by Appointment

Bio

Matthew Leveille's dissertation “Poetry and Praise, Prayer and Aesthetics: Illuminating Hindu Stotras Through a Sympathetic Reading of Appayya Dīkṣita’s Varadarājastava,” explores how the Varadarājastava reflects centuries of refinement in Sanskrit poetry, and how it offers insights into the development of Hindu prayer, culture, and aesthetics in late pre-modern South India. The dissertations also explores how, especially in the Hindu world, stotras (religious hymns of praise) are crucial to our understanding because they are places where different strands of a religious tradition (popular religion, literary and imaginary traditions, intellectual traditions and theologies), along with its prevailing traditions of thought, belief, and practice intersect. His ongoing research seeks to understand more clearly the mysterious and captivating relationship between religion and literature, and the fine lines between religious devotion and poetic invention. In this we can further develop our understanding of how religious imaginaries of the past function, and how they influence our current climate.

Courses:

RELG 213 Introduction to Hinduism