Shall the Garden be a Paradise? Ursula Bethell's encounter with Eden
This article examines the work of the New Zealand poet Ursula Bethell (1874-1945), looking in particular at her first volume, From a Garden in the Antipodes (1929). The religious reference in Bethell's two later volumes, Time and Place (1936) and Day and Night (1939), has been widely acknowledg...
| Published in: | Literature and theology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2015]
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| In: |
Literature and theology
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBD Doctrine of Creation |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article examines the work of the New Zealand poet Ursula Bethell (1874-1945), looking in particular at her first volume, From a Garden in the Antipodes (1929). The religious reference in Bethell's two later volumes, Time and Place (1936) and Day and Night (1939), has been widely acknowledged, and those volumes position her as a significant religious writer within New Zealand poetry. In this article, I argue that her first volume is equally rich in religious allusion, and that the religious references operate in a way that frequently calls to mind the traditional narrative of the Garden of Eden, and the loss of Paradise, alluding both to the biblical sources of that narrative, and at times to its later expressions in English literature. Although other major New Zealand poets deal repeatedly with the Fall, no one alludes to Eden so extensively and yet in such a sidelong and lighthearted fashion. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/fru037 |