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http://hdl.handle.net/11375/10937
Title: | A New Aesthetic of Closure: The Non-Linear Cosmologies of Henry Kreisel and Toni Morrison |
Authors: | Shea, Patrick Thomas |
Advisor: | O`Connor, Mary |
Department: | English |
Keywords: | English Language and Literature;English Language and Literature |
Publication Date: | Sep-1995 |
Abstract: | <p>The Judaeo-Christian mythic tradition postulates a universe with absolute limits in both time and space, as typified by the biblical books Genesis and Revelations. In the first chapter of my thesis I examine the way in which works of literature written from within this tradition necessarily have definite endings characterized by a return to a state of unity and an end to narratable incidents. Such endings may be interpreted as an affirmation of Apocalypse and of the eventual end of linear (and narrative) time.</p> <p>This theoretical framework cannot, however, account for the approaches to closure evidenced in literature of atrocity: the unprecedented nature of the event narrated necessitates a total re-evaluation or replacement of interpretive models. Thus we see structural innovations built around radically new interpretive strategies in the writings of post-Holocaust Jewish authors faced with the inapplicability of the Judaeo-Christian paradigm as a model for understanding. Of special relevance is Emil Fackenheim's concept of Tikkun Olam ("mending of the world") , which searches--and reconfigures--Jewish tradition in creating a uniquely Jewish response to the Holocaust. The practical implications of this paradigm shift, particularly as manifest in Henry Kreisel's The Betrayal, forms the focus of the second...</p> |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/10937 |
Identifier: | opendissertations/5946 6974 2176502 |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
Files in This Item:
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fulltext.pdf | 3.15 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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