A Literary History of Reconciliation : Power, Remorse and the Limits of Forgiveness

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. "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."--Bloomsbury Publishing. "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."-- Provided by publisher "From William Shakespeare to Jonathan Franzen, this book traces the cultural history of the idea of 'reconciliation' in literature, religion and politics. By tracing how remorse moved from being a spiritual experience built on Christian notions of forgiveness to a question of ethics, A Literary History of Reconciliation argues that this seemingly new model of reconciliation can in fact be traced to a change in perceptions in the sixteenth century. During the time of Shakespeare, literary authors began to suggest that remorse, originally an emotion felt by sinful humans before God, could be applied to relations between people. Drawing upon major works of Western literature and key moments in history, the book shows how remorse then grew into the dominant, but also deeply fraught, model for interpersonal reconciliation during the 18th and 19th centuries as reflected in the work of writers such as George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte and contemporary writers such as Marilynne Robinson and J. M. Coetzee"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. ‘None Left but by Submission’: Paradise Lost and the Genesis of Reconciliation 3. ‘Ask Her Forgiveness?’ Reconciliation, 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 Transfi guration’: Forgiveness, Theology and Politics in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead Novels Notes Bibliography Index