Which Story do you Prefer?': The Limits of the Symbolic in Yann Martel's Life of Pi
This article investigates the symbolic and the material in Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi. I develop through psychoanalytical and phenomenological argumentation a reading of Martel's book as an updating of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, in the sense that each tempts its protagonist to t...
| Main Author: | |
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| 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
[2020]
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2020, Volume: 34, Issue: 1, Pages: 83-100 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture NBE Anthropology VA Philosophy ZD Psychology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article investigates the symbolic and the material in Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi. I develop through psychoanalytical and phenomenological argumentation a reading of Martel's book as an updating of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, in the sense that each tempts its protagonist to try to glimpse the presence of the divine within the indifferent mutability of animal natures. Like Ishmael, who alternatively perceives Ahab as Jonah and Job, Martel's castaway Piscine asks us to choose which story' about the universe we prefer, one in which nature is a window into God's mind, and the other in which it refuses us this desire. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frz048 |