"You Will Furnish / That Fatigue": Typological Interpretation and David Jones's Ambiguous Soldier

Critics have long recognized that typological interpretation constitutes a key element of David Jones' poetry, but the technique plays a more complex role in his poetics and theory of history than has been recognized. Jones's depictions of soldiers in In Parenthesis and The Sleeping Lord e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Googan, Sarah (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Notre Dame 2017
In: Religion & literature
Year: 2017, Volume: 49, Issue: 1, Pages: 52-61
IxTheo Classification:CD Christianity and Culture
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
Further subjects:B IN Parenthesis (Poem)
B SLEEPING Lord, The (Book)
B Literary style
B Hermeneutics
B JONES, David, 1895-1974
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Critics have long recognized that typological interpretation constitutes a key element of David Jones' poetry, but the technique plays a more complex role in his poetics and theory of history than has been recognized. Jones's depictions of soldiers in In Parenthesis and The Sleeping Lord exemplify his unique variety of typological interpretation. His use of typology does not impose static spiritual significance on the figure of the soldier. Rather, his combatants contain multiple potential typologies, even embodying contradictory types at the same time. This technique constitutes an innovation upon biblical models of typology, where an individual figure functions linearly as the fulfillment of an earlier type (e.g. Old Testament sacrifices serve as types of Christ). When Jones allows individual figures like Roman soldiers or Dai Greatcoat to embody both sacrificial victims and murderers, this complicates the model, leaving room in his work both for redemptive symbolic resonance and for historical particularity and individuality.
ISSN:2328-6911
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion & literature