A New Aesthetic of Closure: The Non-Linear Cosmologies of Henry Kreisel and Toni Morrison

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>