Mettānoia in Thomas Pynchon's Buddhist Trilogy
This article argues for the centrality of Buddhism in Thomas Pynchon's fiction. The Crying of Lot 49, Fineland, and Bleeding Edge make a Buddhist Trilogv As the only three Pynchon novels to have female protagonists, each novel features a motherly protagonist that has a Buddhist reference iii he...
| 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: |
2021
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| In: |
Religion & literature
Year: 2020, Volume: 52/53, Issue: 3/1, Pages: 113-135 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Pynchon, Thomas 1937-
/ Buddhism
/ Metanoia
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| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BL Buddhism TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Buddhism in literature
B Paranoia B Protagonists (Persons) in literature B Hermeneutics B Pynchon, Thomas, 1937- |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article argues for the centrality of Buddhism in Thomas Pynchon's fiction. The Crying of Lot 49, Fineland, and Bleeding Edge make a Buddhist Trilogv As the only three Pynchon novels to have female protagonists, each novel features a motherly protagonist that has a Buddhist reference iii her name. Beneath the patina ofludeo-Christian, psychological, scientific, and political refer nces apparent on the surface iii this Trilogy's denouements, Pynchon has sculpted a program for changing one's mind firmly grounded iii Buddhist belief and practice. This program is a specifically Buddhist quest for niettiinoia. liettannia is tile author's tripartite term for Pynchon's corrective to paranoia: a 1) change of mind tliat, while 2) softly inclusive of fbrrns of Christian metanoia, is centered much inore on 3) Buddhist metta, the summary monlent aftermeditation when the Buddllist subject is changed to a heightened sense of compassionate care. However, mettanoia also limits one's acts of compassion such th:it they retain a Buddhist detachnient from worldly outcomes. This article ends by looking at how mettanoid reading might counter paranoid reading, adding to the current discourses of postcritique and the postsccular. |
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| Item Description: | Die Hefte mit der Zählung 52.2020,3 und 53.2021,1 sind als Doppelheft erschienen |
| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/rel.2020.0040 |