The Figure of Mary Magdalene in Robert Southwell's Mary Magdalens Funerall Teares and Ragusan Baroque Long Poems

: The paper analyses the image of Mary Magdalene in three representative examples of the Baroque "literature of tears" – two Ragusan long poems by Ivan Bunić Vučić (1592-1658) and Ignjat Đurđević (1675-1737), and an English prose treatise/ meditation by Robert Southwell (1561-1595). Their hitherto unexplored similarities and differences are investigated in the light of their specific religious and cultural-historical contexts, as well as their position and meaning in the reception history of the Mary Magdalene figure. In addition to the typical Baroque preoccupation with the relationship between pragmatism and aesthetics, sacred truth and poetic fiction, a comparative analysis of the three texts also aims to highlight their treatment of the Mary Magdalene figure, taking into account her traditional image of the sensuous penitent, but also the possibility of re-valuating her initial gospel image of a devout disciple and the apostle to the apostles.