Where do Canadians encounter religious meaning? Not where they used to!
In ten lively and wide-ranging essays, William Closson James examines various derivations of the sacred in contemporary Canadian culture. Most of the essays focus on the religious aspects of modern Canadian English fiction — for example, in essays on the fiction of Hugh MacLennan, Morley Callaghan, Margaret Atwood and Joy Kogawa. But James also explores other, non-literary events and activities in which Canadians have found something transcendant or revelatory.
Each of the chapters in Locations of the Sacred can be read independently as a discrete analysis of its subject. Taken as a whole, the essays make up a powerful argument for a new way of looking at the religious in contemporary Canada — not in the traditional ways of being religious, but in activities and locations previously thought to be “secular.” Thus, the domains and modes of the religious are expanded, not restricted.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- C810.9/382
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn---
- ISBN
- 9780889203679 9780889207578 0889207577
- LCCN
- PR9185.5.R4
- LCCN Item number
- J36 1998eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOTU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xviii, 270 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)rjv00101399 (OCoLC)144086956 (CaOOCEL)402524
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOTU
Table of Contents
- Contents 6
- Preface 8
- Acknowledgments 16
- Introduction 20
- CHAPTER 1 Dislocating the Sacred: The Protestant Voice 38
- The Protestant Voice 38
- A Protestant Trio: Davies, MacLennan, and Laurence 41
- Imprisonment and Liberation 47
- How Is Canadian Literature "Religious"? 49
- The Protestant Principle in English-Canadian Fiction 53
- A Tentative Conclusion 55
- CHAPTER 2 Relocating the Sacred: The Human Ground of Transcendence 58
- Eternity and Transcendence 58
- "Eternity" in Callaghan and MacLennan 61
- The Ordinary and the Sacred in Mitchell and Munro 64
- Divining the Depths in Davies, Laurence, and Atwood 70
- Conclusion 76
- CHAPTER 3 Nature as the Locale of the Sacred 80
- Native and Christian Attitudes 80
- Some Typical Canadian Views 83
- Geography over History 88
- A New Direction 91
- CHAPTER 4 In Quest of the Sacred: The Canoe Trip 100
- The Quest Pattern 100
- States of the Quest 104
- Transformative Quest and Canadian Character 110
- The Canoe Trip as Initiation Rite 113
- Conclusion 117
- CHAPTER 5 Sacred Death: The Belcher Islands Massacre 120
- Introduction 120
- Geographical and Religious Backgrounds 122
- Narrative of the Events 127
- The Contemporary Reaction to the Murders 133
- Analysis 136
- A Personal Epilogue 143
- CHAPTER 6 Theodicy and the Sacred: A. M. Klein and Hugh MacLennan 150
- Parallel Dislocations 150
- The Second Scroll as Theodicy 153
- The Watch that Ends the Night and Selfhood 156
- The Everyman and the Self 162
- Chaos into Cosmos 166
- CHAPTER 7 Love and the Sacred: The Ambiguities of Morley Callaghan's Such Is My Beloved 174
- Callaghan's "Certain Perceptions" 174
- The Two Conflicting Realms 176
- The Song of Songs: Love and the Sacred 180
- Conclusion: Incarnational Humanism 186
- CHAPTER 8 Sacred Passages: Native Symbols in Atwood and Engel 190
- The Female Initiation Pattern 190
- Atwood's Surfacing 193
- Engel's Bear 197
- Conclusion 202
- CHAPTER 9 Nordicity and the Sacred: The Journeys of Thomas York and Aritha van Herk 208
- The Fugitive 208
- The Spiritual Quest 211
- The Return to the South in Desireless 224
- No End to This Road": Aritha van Herk 226
- CHAPTER 10 Mutuality and the Sacred: Joy Kogawa 232
- From Divine Abandonment to Human Solidarity 232
- Bread and Stones and Names in Obasan 242
- From Silence to Communion 247
- Conclusion 260
- References 264
- Index 284
- A 284
- B 284
- C 284
- D 285
- E 285
- F 285
- G 285
- H 286
- I 286
- J 286
- K 286
- L 286
- M 286
- N 287
- O 288
- P 288
- Q 288
- R 288
- S 289
- T 289
- U 289
- V 289
- W 289
- Y 289
