Authorial Divinity in the Twentieth Century: Omniscient Narration in Woolf, Hemingway, and Others"Whatever a writer's religious assumptions and histories, the literary device of omniscient narration traps a writer into a pose as God, at least some sort of God, be it one the writer eschews, avows, or longs for. In this study, Barbara K. Olson examines the relationship between both the writer and the omniscient narrator to God." "Olson explains how modernists Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf both illustrate how authors' particular styles of omniscience bear a reliable though variable relation to their own or their culture's particular conceptions of God." "The experience of novelists generally attests to perennial theological conundrums into which their creating and narrating have cast them - transcendence vs. immanence, providential care vs. cosmic capriciousness, determinism vs. freedom. Not surprisingly, such atheists as John Fowles and Ronald Sukenick have aimed their narrational experiments in omniscience at subverting what Fowles has called the "godgame" that this device requires. Such other writers as Flannery O'Connor, Graham Greene, and Murial Spark have predictably relied on the device as one consonant with their theistic assumptions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 7 |
Omniscient Narration | 37 |
Who Thinks It? Process Theism and Woolfs | 64 |
Copyright | |
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actually added analogy appeared argued artist attempts Barthes becomes believe called century Chapter characters Christian claim concept concern continues convention course create creation creator critics death diary discourse distinct divine earlier early emphasis exist experience explained expression fact feel felt fiction finally finds Fowles God's godlike Hemingway Hemingway's human Ibid imagination insists ironic John language Lanser later least less Letters limited literary Literature look means mind Modes narrative narrator's nature never novel novelist observed omniscient narration perhaps person plot pose possible practice presence Press question Quoted readers reality reason recent recognize reference relation religious rhetorical Room says seems self-conscious sense shares shows sort speaks story style suggests Sukenick tell term theological things thought tion transcendent University Virginia voice wonder Woolf writing wrote