A Literary History of Reconciliation

Power, Remorse and the Limits of Forgiveness

Professor Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

248 Seiten

2020
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-15484-1 (ISBN)

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From William Shakespeare to Marilynne Robinson, this book examines representations of interpersonal reconciliation in works of literature, focusing on how these representations draw on the language of divine forgiveness. Christian theology sees divine forgiveness as conditional upon a sinner’s remorse and self-abasement before God, but also as a form of grace – unconditional and rooted only in divine love. Van Dijkhuizen explores what happens when this paradoxical forgiveness paradigm comes to serve as a template for interpersonal reconciliation.

As A Literary History of Reconciliation shows, literary writers imagine interpersonal reconciliation as being centrally about power and hierarchy, and present forgiveness without power as longed for but ever elusive. Drawing on major works of literature from the early modern era to the present day, this book explores works by John Milton, Virginia Woolf, J.M. Coetzee, Ian McEwan and others to craft a literary history that will appeal to readers interested in literature, religion and philosophy.

Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. His previous books include Pain and Compassion in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2012) and Devil Theatre: Demonic Possession and Exorcism in English Renaissance Drama (2007).

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. 'None Left But By Submission': Paradise Lost and the Genesis of Reconciiliation
3. 'Ask Her Forgiveness?': Reconciiliation, Power and Grace in Shakespeare
4. 'Pray Your Honour Forgive Me!': Hierarchical Forgiveness from Pamela to Bleak House
5. 'The Apathy of the Stars': Impersonal Reconciliation in To the Lighthouse and Ulysses
6. 'Not Quite Not Yet': History, Forgiveness and the Literary Imagination in Disgrace and Atonement
7. 'The Prairie Still Shines like Transfiguration': Forgiveness, Theology and Politics in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead Novels
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	02.09.2019
Zusatzinfo	2 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	354 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-350-15484-9 / 1350154849
ISBN-13	978-1-350-15484-1 / 9781350154841
Zustand	Neuware