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Postmodern or post-Catholic? : a study of British Catholic writers and their fictions in a postmodern and postconciliar world

This thesis is an investigation into the nature of the 'postmodern' narrative strategies and fictional
methods in the work of two British Catholic writers. The work of David Lodge and Muriel Spark is
here taken as an example ofthe 'Catholic novel'. In order to determine ifthe overlap ofpostmodern.
and Christian-influenced narrative strategies constitutes more than a convergence or coincidence of
formal concerns, narrative form in these novels is analyzed in the light of neo-Tho mist and Tho mist
aesthetics, a traditional Catholic Christian theory of the arts. The 'postmodern' in these 'Christian'
texts becomes largely a coincidence of terminology. Narrative forms which can be classified as
'postmodern' can also be categorized using the terminology of Thomas Aquinas. The apparent
similarities betray radically divergent metaphysical presuppositions, however. The nature of the
Catholic 'difference' lies in the way postmodern forms are used to challenge the metaphysical
bases of those forms. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/18636
Date11 1900
CreatorsMitras, Joao Luis
ContributorsBatley, Karen, Rabinowitz, Ivan Arthur
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Format1 online resource (140 leaves)

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