By Barbara A. Heavilin
From an Existential Vacuum to a sad Optimism: the hunt for which means and the Presence of God in sleek Literature employs a brand new theoretical method of serious research: Victor Frankl’s logotherapy (from the Greek “logos” for be aware or cause and sometimes on the topic of divine wisdom), a distinct type of existentialism. at the foundation of his observations of the ability of human persistence and transcendence – the invention of which means even in the middle of harrowing situations – Frankl diagnoses the malaise of the present age as an “existential vacuum,” a feeling of meaninglessness. He means that a panacea for this malaise will be present in creativity, love, and ethical selection – even if confronted with soreness or demise. He affirms that humans may well go beyond this vacuum, notice which means – or perhaps final aspiring to be present in final Being, or God – and reside with a feeling of “tragic optimism.”
This e-book observes either the present age’s “existential vacuum” – a malaise of vacancy and meaninglessness – and its eager for which means and God as mirrored in 3 genres: poetry, novel, and fable. half I, “Reflections of God within the Poetic Vision,” addresses “tragic optimism” – wish while there appears no explanation for desire – in poems by way of William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. half II, “American Angst: vacancy and threat in John Steinbeck’s significant Novels,” offers a examine of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The wintry weather of Our Discontent – novels that jointly shape a uniquely American epic trilogy. jointly those novels inform the tale of a nation’s avarice, corruption, and betrayal offset by means of magnanimity, heroism, and hospitality. Set opposed to the backdrop of Frankl’s methods of discovering that means and achievement – all obliquely implying the felt presence of God – the characters are consultant each americans, in whose lives are mirrored a nation’s worst vices and top hopes. half III, “A Tragic Optimism: The Triumph of excellent within the myth Worlds of Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling,” defines fable and technology fiction as mirrors with which to view fact. J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the jewelry, C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous power, and J. ok. Rowling’s Harry Potter sequence are thought of within the mild of Frankl’s logotherapy – delivering paths to which means and the last word desiring to be present in God. In a postmodern, fragmented age, those works verify a continuous imaginative and prescient of God (often via His felt absence) and, additionally, a so much human craving for that means even if there appears to be like none – supplying, as Frankl continues, “a tragic optimism.”
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Extra resources for From an Existential Vacuum to a Tragic Optimism: The Search for Meaning and Presence of God in Modern Literature
Example text
By implication, human beings, like the falcon now beyond hope of return, can hear neither God nor the voice of reason, having lost the center essential to purpose and meaning. As Frankl has observed, this center, that provides purpose and meaning for life, may be found in love for others, joy in work well done, and choices well made—even for those faced with suffering and death. But now there is no center to light the darkness, and some unnamed, shapeless, evil force sets loose “mere anarchy” and a “blooddimmed tide” that drowns “the ceremony of innocence”—those warm and sacred moments that punctuate our humanity with joy.
5)—that by reaching her own potential and being most truly herself, that she be pleasing to God as well. 1), even in the face of great adversity—scowling faces, howling winter winds, or billowing seas that burst past boundaries—she can still be happy. ” Thinking of the years to come when Anne will marry, he prays she may have the security of a home where customs and ceremonies may be observed—keeping at bay the “arrogance and hatred” of her times, a place where “innocence and beauty” (stanza 10.
1--4). That is, her life experiences will enable her to be confident, self-assured, and at peace with herself, heeding the warnings of her own conscience. ” Such critics overlook the sincerity of the father’s prayer, his love and fears as he watches over the child, and his desire for her present and future wellbeing. ” The speaker’s own “great gloom” matches that of a howling, screaming, “roof-levelling wind” as he walks the floor and prays, watching over his sleeping baby daughter in her cradle—so small, vulnerable, and defenseless against the elements.
