To unwrap and lift these particular shreds of holiness : spiritual incarnation in the writings of Annie Dillard
Date
2001
Authors
Ronsse, Erin Ann
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Abstract
Contemporary American author Annie Dillard impressively launched her literary career by winning the Pulitzer Prize for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974). I argue that, in this and following works, Dillard develops her ideas of literary embodiment, or "incarnational" spirituality, on the basis ofreligious ideas that bave phenomenological counterpart. Focusing on her developing portrayal of spiritual incarnation, a sacred particularity, helps explain Dillard's varied, specific interests that critics find intriguing and frustrating. Cued by the author herself, I suggest that an incarnational approach to literature, and life, is the driving force and inspiration behind all Dillard's creative and critical efforts, and this approach may have contemporary social value.
My chapters survey and analyze the author's critical reception; Dillard's own critical ideas about art and literary criticism; her vivid, creative images of spiritual incarnation in select first-person prose narratives; and, finally, the religious precedents and phenomenological relevance of her incarnational ideas.