Spirit Matter(s): Post-Dualism Representations of Spirituality in Fiction by Walker Percy, Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor, examines the ways in which these authors have presented spirituality in The Moviegoer, Song of Solomon, and Mama Day respectively. In these works, spirituality is a need for connection among humans in this world, rather than a notion that points to dualistic views of the spiritual and the material as two different realms. Through this perspective on spirituality as a reality of the physical world, the political and socio-economic problems of the world are notnor can they beset aside in favor of the spiritual search. The solitary quest of the individual that overcomes distinctions of class, race, sex, etc. to gain enlightenment proves insufficient to explain modern spiritual concerns. Instead, the examined texts propose that problems such as injustice and exploitation, and the struggles that arise when people fight against them, are part of the human condition, and therefore of the human spirit as well. The ethical obligations that arise from connection with one another guide people to the ways in which spiritual awareness can become ethical praxis, and so spirituality leads to a concern with the problems of the political and socio-economic sphere rather than to an escape from them by transcending such concerns. Finally, a vision of spirituality as part of the physical world affirms life and valorizes struggle in it rather than sacrificial death.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-0706102-115040 |
| Date | 08 July 2002 |
| Creators | Vassiliou, Likourgos James |
| Contributors | Sarah Liggett, Rita Culross, Rick Moreland, John Lowe, John R. May |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0706102-115040/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University Libraries in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. |
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