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"This volume of the "Arthurian Characters and Themes" series is the only one dealing with theme, rather than character. Essays include both newly commissioned and reprinted articles that explore a variety of issues regarding the Arthurian search for the Holy Grail. Topics include analysis of the Grail as vessel, Perceval's sister in the Grail quest, the symbolism of the Grail in Wolfram, chivalric nationalism, and investigations of the use of the Grail in poetry and literature by authors such as Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, and Walker Percy"--Barnes & Noble.
Stephen Haynes takes a hard look at contemporary Christian theology as he explores the pervasive Christian "witness-people" myth that dominates much Christian thinking about the Jews in both Christian and Jewish minds. This myth, an ancient theological construct that has put Jews in the role of living symbols of God's dealings with the world, has for centuries, according to Haynes, created an ambivalence toward the Jews in the Christian mind with often disastrous results. Tracing the witness-people myth from its origins to its manifestations in the modern world, Haynes finds the myth expressed in many unexpected places: the writings of Karl Barth, the novels and essays of Walker Percy, the "prophetic" writings of Hal Lindsey, as well as in the work of some North American Holocaust theologians such as Alice L. and A. Roy Eckardt, Paul van Buren, and Franklin Littell.
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Sometimes oblivious to the sacramental signs of life, sometimes clear-eyed, both Will at the end of The Second Coming and Tom at the end of The Thanatos Syndrome finally assent to the wondrous possibilities these signs signify. They begin to believe in the possibilities for a life that waits for them on the horizon and down the road."--BOOK JACKET.
The novels of Walker Percy--The Moviegoer, Lancelot, The Second Coming, and The Thanatos Syndrome to name a few--have left a permanent mark on twentieth-century Southern fiction; yet the history of the Percy family in America matches anything, perhaps, that he could have created. Two centuries of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, and sometimes suicide established a fascinating legacy that lies behind Walker Percy's acclaimed prose and profound insight into the human condition. In The House of Percy, Bertram Wyatt-Brown masterfully interprets the life of this gifted family, drawing out the twin themes of an inherited inclination to despondency and an abiding s...
This writing intends to rouse would-be believers to faith--or enhance the faith of others--through the adventure of modern fiction. While taking note of the secularity of our era, the author insists the Spirit of God has not departed the scene. The opening poem by Emily Dickinson, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant," proposes the author's contention that the "indirect discourse" of fictional writers may welcome readers to faith's door in ways sermonic speech never did. The modern authors chosen for this purpose are Izak Dinesen, Annie Dillard, Kent Haruf, Loren Eiseley, Gary Trudeau, Garrison Keillor, William Golding, Walker Percy, Frederick Buechner, and Gabriel Marcel. Having explained one work each by these noted authors, the book closes by pointing to ways in which embedded faith may rise out of these pages to meet the reader where he or she lives.
Beginning with an introduction that examines the portrayal of the characters of Lancelot and Guinevere from their origins to the present day, this collection of 16 essays-five of which appear here for the first time-puts particular emphasis on the appearance of the two characters in medieval and modern literature. Besides several studies exploring feminist concerns, the volume features articles on the representation of the lovers in medieval manuscript illuminations (18 plates focus on scenes of their first kiss and the consummation of the adultery), in film, and in other visual arts. A 200-item bibliography completes the volume.
Isn't Justice Always Unfair? explores the uncommonly long and uncommonly rich relationship between the fictional detective and his or her South. It begins with the New Orleans expatriate, Legrand, uncovering Captain Kidd's treasure on an island off Charleston, South Carolina; it covers the satires and parodies of Mark Twain and the polished stories of Melville Davisson Post and Irvin S. Cobb; and it concludes with surveys of the many good and excellent writers who are using the form of the detective story to compose inquiries into the character of life in the South today. At the center of Isn't Justice Always Unfair? lies an analysis of a most remarkable phenomenon: William Faulkner's exploitation of the genre as an avenue into his postage stamp of Southern experience, Yoknapatawpha County.
Walker Percy's novels are fraught with characters struggling toward a destiny and purpose in life who must sort through conflicting inner voices and the voices of family, friends, therapists, and mentors until they finally find their own paths. Through trial, error, and retrial, Percy's characters continuously reinvent themselves, struggling until they reach solutions, satisfaction, and maturity. In this multifaceted work, Michael Kobre analyzes Walker Percy's major fiction works--The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, Lancelot, The Second Coming, and The Thanatos Syndrome--in terms of the Russian philosopher and literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin's critical theory. Kobre begins with an introduction to Percy's view of language and consciousness and a clear, accessible explanation of Bakhtin's ideas. His subsequent discussion of the novels connects each work in turn with Percy's advancing career and explores the deepening conflict in Percy's fiction between his desire to express his own religious and moral beliefs and his commitment to the essential freedom of his art--the play of many voices in his narratives.
Looking at the works of diverse writers as the gens de couleur libre poets of antebellum New Orleans, this book focuses on the shifting and contradictory ways Catholicism has signified within southern literature and culture. It contributes to a more nuanced understanding of American and southern literary and cultural history.