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Locations of the Sacred : Essays on Religion, Literature, and Canadian Culture

William Closson James

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Description

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.

Table of Contents

Contents
Page 6-7

Preface
Page 8-15

Acknowledgments
Page 16-19

Show more

Introduction
Page 20-37

CHAPTER 1 Dislocating the Sacred: The Protestant Voice
Page 38-57

-----The Protestant Voice
Page 38-40

-----A Protestant Trio: Davies, MacLennan, and Laurence
Page 41-46

-----Imprisonment and Liberation
Page 47-48

-----How Is Canadian Literature "Religious"?
Page 49-52

-----The Protestant Principle in English-Canadian Fiction
Page 53-54

-----A Tentative Conclusion
Page 55-57

CHAPTER 2 Relocating the Sacred: The Human Ground of Transcendence
Page 58-79

-----Eternity and Transcendence
Page 58-60

-----"Eternity" in Callaghan and MacLennan
Page 61-63

-----The Ordinary and the Sacred in Mitchell and Munro
Page 64-69

-----Divining the Depths in Davies, Laurence, and Atwood
Page 70-75

-----Conclusion
Page 76-79

CHAPTER 3 Nature as the Locale of the Sacred
Page 80-99

-----Native and Christian Attitudes
Page 80-82

-----Some Typical Canadian Views
Page 83-87

-----Geography over History
Page 88-90

-----A New Direction
Page 91-99

CHAPTER 4 In Quest of the Sacred: The Canoe Trip
Page 100-119

-----The Quest Pattern
Page 100-103

-----States of the Quest
Page 104-109

-----Transformative Quest and Canadian Character
Page 110-112

-----The Canoe Trip as Initiation Rite
Page 113-116

-----Conclusion
Page 117-119

CHAPTER 5 Sacred Death: The Belcher Islands Massacre
Page 120-149

-----Introduction
Page 120-121

-----Geographical and Religious Backgrounds
Page 122-126

-----Narrative of the Events
Page 127-132

-----The Contemporary Reaction to the Murders
Page 133-135

-----Analysis
Page 136-142

-----A Personal Epilogue
Page 143-149

CHAPTER 6 Theodicy and the Sacred: A. M. Klein and Hugh MacLennan
Page 150-173

-----Parallel Dislocations
Page 150-152

-----The Second Scroll as Theodicy
Page 153-155

-----The Watch that Ends the Night and Selfhood
Page 156-161

-----The Everyman and the Self
Page 162-165

-----Chaos into Cosmos
Page 166-173

CHAPTER 7 Love and the Sacred: The Ambiguities of Morley Callaghan's Such Is My Beloved
Page 174-189

-----Callaghan's "Certain Perceptions"
Page 174-175

-----The Two Conflicting Realms
Page 176-179

-----The Song of Songs: Love and the Sacred
Page 180-185

-----Conclusion: Incarnational Humanism
Page 186-189

CHAPTER 8 Sacred Passages: Native Symbols in Atwood and Engel
Page 190-207

-----The Female Initiation Pattern
Page 190-192

-----Atwood's Surfacing
Page 193-196

-----Engel's Bear
Page 197-201

-----Conclusion
Page 202-207

CHAPTER 9 Nordicity and the Sacred: The Journeys of Thomas York and Aritha van Herk
Page 208-231

-----The Fugitive
Page 208-210

-----The Spiritual Quest
Page 211-223

-----The Return to the South in Desireless
Page 224-225

-----No End to This Road": Aritha van Herk
Page 226-231

CHAPTER 10 Mutuality and the Sacred: Joy Kogawa
Page 232-259

-----From Divine Abandonment to Human Solidarity
Page 232-241

-----Bread and Stones and Names in Obasan
Page 242-246

-----From Silence to Communion
Page 247-259

Conclusion
Page 260-263

References
Page 264-283

Index
Page 284-289

-----A
Page 284-284

-----B
Page 284-284

-----C
Page 284-284

-----D
Page 285-285

-----E
Page 285-285

-----F
Page 285-285

-----G
Page 285-285

-----H
Page 286-286

-----I
Page 286-286

-----J
Page 286-286

-----K
Page 286-286

-----L
Page 286-286

-----M
Page 286-286

-----N
Page 287-287

-----O
Page 288-288

-----P
Page 288-288

-----Q
Page 288-288

-----R
Page 288-288

-----S
Page 289-289

-----T
Page 289-289

-----U
Page 289-289

-----V
Page 289-289

-----W
Page 289-289

-----Y
Page 289-289

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Book Details

Title

Locations of the Sacred

Subtitle

Essays on Religion, Literature, and Canadian Culture

Contributors

William Closson James

Publisher

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Publication date

2006-01-01

Pages

xviii, 270 p.

Print ISBN

9780889203679

eBook ISBN

9780889207578

LC Subjects

Spirituality in literature., Religion in literature., Religion and culture - Canada.

Audience

Professional and scholarly

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