"The Zany Paraclete": Seeking the Pentecostal Community in The Crying of Lot 49

This essay builds on existing scholarship that emphasizes Pynchon’s use of Pentecostal imagery to create intimations of revelation and communication that transcend the quotidian. My reading focuses on the partial and incomplete nature of Pynchon’s Pentecostal revelation in terms of both communicatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hicks, Andrew P. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 2024
In: Christianity & literature
Year: 2024, Volume: 73, Issue: 2, Pages: 260-276
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
CD Christianity and Culture
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KDG Free church
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B The Crying of Lot 49
B Pynchon
B Pentecost
B Messianic
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Summary:This essay builds on existing scholarship that emphasizes Pynchon’s use of Pentecostal imagery to create intimations of revelation and communication that transcend the quotidian. My reading focuses on the partial and incomplete nature of Pynchon’s Pentecostal revelation in terms of both communication and community. Drawing on the deconstructive notion of the messianic as articulated by Jacques Derrida and John Caputo, I argue that reading Pynchon’s Pentecostal imagery in a messianic mode serves to highlight the tension between solipsism and desire for community in the novel, and additionally illuminates Pynchon’s framing of the possibility for alternative community outside of the normative.
ISSN:2056-5666
Contains:Enthalten in: Christianity & literature
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/chy.2024.a930543