"Someday She Would Tell Him What She Knew": The Nature of Belief in Marilynne Robinson's Lila
When analyzing the religious elements of Marilynne Robinson's fiction, critics have often focused on her Calvinist impulses, the impact of doctrinal belief on her characters' behavior, and various Christian rituals and typologies that permeate her writing. Few, however, have been attentive...
| 1. VerfasserIn: | |
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2024
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| In: |
Religion & literature
Jahr: 2023, Band: 55, Heft: 2/3, Seiten: 49-69 |
| normierte Schlagwort(-folgen): | B
Robinson, Marilynne 1944-, Lila
/ Kristeva, Julia 1941-
/ Glaube
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| IxTheo Notationen: | AB Religionsphilosophie; Religionskritik; Atheismus CB Christliche Existenz; Spiritualität CD Christentum und Kultur KAJ Kirchengeschichte 1914-; neueste Zeit |
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Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Zusammenfassung: | When analyzing the religious elements of Marilynne Robinson's fiction, critics have often focused on her Calvinist impulses, the impact of doctrinal belief on her characters' behavior, and various Christian rituals and typologies that permeate her writing. Few, however, have been attentive to Robinson's fascination with the nature of belief itself. This essay reads the religious development of Lila, the title character of Robinson's fourth novel, Lila (2014), both as a fictional demonstration of Robinson's perspective regarding the singularity of human consciousness and as an example of her commitment to a worldview Paul Ricoeur called "the hermeneutics of affirmation"—an alternative to the "hermeneutics of suspicion" epitomized in the writings of Freud, Marx, and Nietzche. After placing Robinson's critique of the hermeneutics of suspicion in conversation with Julia Kristeva's reservations regarding the basic assumptions of that critical approach, I engage Kristeva's arguments regarding the necessity of belief and the usefulness of Christianity to explore the process by which Lila transitions from a belief system rooted in a secular materiality to a "natural theology" that allows her to make space in her belief system for a transcendent reality. The essay traces Lila's journey from the phase Kristeva calls "the need to believe" through her desire to know, and concludes with an examination of two different experiences with baptism that present Lila with not only the opportunity to choose belief in a specific Christian tradition, but with reasons to do so that are intricately connected to her relationships in a secular, material world. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/rel.2024.a948404 |
