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Incarnational epistemologies : metaphor and metonymy in the mystical tradition of the Cloud of unknowing

The Cloud of Unknowing is in a very real sense a treatise on epistemology, and on the practical aspect of the communication which we call rhetoric. The Cloud draws upon the Platonic rhetorical tradition, which asserts that grasp of abstract truth gives value to human understanding and communication. Reality is above all transcendent, as mirrored in the kataphatic mystical tradition to which the Cloud belongs. The problem is that, if this "vertical" mode of knowing be set against the "horizontal" mode of knowing which in literary theory is generally labelled "metaphor", the existence of metaphoric approaches to reality in the Christian faith (which the Cloud author professes) seems inconsistent with the mystical tradition and Platonic rhetoric. However, a reconciliation of vertical and horizontal modes of knowing--of metonymy and metaphor--is effected, in theological terms, by an Incarnational dynamic involving creation and grace, and, in critical terms, by paradox and analogy.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60614
Date January 1991
CreatorsBurgess, Andrew
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of English.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001258323, proquestno: AAIMM72228, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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