Between sacred and profane
Pathographies as renewed conversion narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12281178 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mariarosa Loddo (0000-0002-1597-9309, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 427-441 |
| Publication date | 2020-06-07 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern & Contemporary France (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0963-9489 • E-ISSN: 1469-9869 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09639489.2020.1769043 |
| OpenAlex | W3034054453 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
Although nowadays autobiographical texts are not often embedded in religious frames, they still include some remarkable spiritual features, as pathographies in particular show. Literary criticism has interpreted these memoirs as a narrative response to changes in attitudes towards both spirituality and the illness experience. A fascinating hypothesis related to this context is that pathographies may have replaced the conversion accounts of the Christian tradition; they could be interpreted, in many ways, as their contemporary counterpart. However, even if religion no longer offers complete answers to the questions that arise when we are ill, its cultural influence is still recognisable. It can be latent, challenged, declared, or rejected, but its presence is undeniable, as the persistence of a certain dolorisme, which has religious roots, suggests. This essay aims to analyse the continuity between old and new paradigms by focusing on some autobiographical works about illness written by French authors. Starting from the plot structure, this textual inquiry will highlight patterns, variations, similarities, and original formulations in the narrative process of giving illness meaning within a religious framework
Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Literature · Meaning (existential · Memoir · Narrative · Plot (graphics · Religious conversion · Sociology · Spirituality · French Literature and Critical Theory · French Literature and Criticism · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · History · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies
| Highly cited | No |
|---|