Knowledge and mortality : anagnorisis in Genesis and narrative fiction / Sherryll S. Mleynek. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mleynek, Sherryll S., 1942-

Series:

American university studies. Comparative literature ; Series III, vol. 56.

American university studies. Series III, Comparative literature ; 56

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Knowledge, Theory of, in literature.

Recognition in literature.

Mortality in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (140 p. )

Place of Publication:

New York : P. Lang, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Aristotle identifies "the transformation from ignorance to knowledge," or anagnorisis, as crucial to dramatic tension. Using the Biblical "garden" as the locus classicus of anagnorisis in Western narrative fiction, this study establishes the connection between knowledge and mortality in Genesis, and analyzes anagnorisis and mortality in three nineteenth-century British novels, Middlemarch, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Pride and Prejudice, and in the "post-modern" novel Possession.

Ultimately, it is a proof that the suffusing literary motif of "knowledge and mortality" is inescapable: it transcends fictional genre and period because the "knowledge of mortality" is humanity's most ontologically disturbing burden."--Jacket.

Contents:

Ch. 1. Knowledge and Mortality: Anagnorisis in Genesis and Narrative Fiction

Ch. 2. Middlemarch: Anagnorisis and the Altered Present

Ch. 3. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Knowledge and Mortality

Ch. 4. Pride and Prejudice: Anagnorisis and the Comic Obligation

Ch. 5. Possession: Knowledge, Morality and the Myth of Eden

Ch. 6. Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [129]-133) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph