Papers by Alison Fisch Katz
The dialectic of word and image in the selected fiction of Thomas Hardy
EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Biblical Exegesis in Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge
Literature and Theology, 2012
Violent wisdom: Thomas Hardy and ekphrastic discord
Word & Image, 2011
Thomas Hardy’s remark on the concept of ‘becoming’ in his autobiographical entry of July 1887 sug... more Thomas Hardy’s remark on the concept of ‘becoming’ in his autobiographical entry of July 1887 suggests that the moment of stasis is paradisal while the temporal progression inherent in ‘becoming’ offers no promise of happiness. Stillness, Hardy says, is idyllic, as it (presumably) offers the stoppage of pain and suffering that history entails. However, the example he uses to demonstrate the point offers a far more complicated view of his utopian vision. It refers to the biblical account of the Israelites’ conquest of Canaan when Joshua asks God to cease the progression of the day so that a military victory may be assured; and it was during this never-ending moment of stillness that the battle against five Amorite kings in the valley of Ajalon was fought and won:
Few commentators are willing to concede to a view of the late-Victorian novelist and poet Thomas ... more Few commentators are willing to concede to a view of the late-Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy as a profoundly Christian writer. Most often he is regarded as atheistic in principle, a view which tends to subdue those voices that would describe his religious allegiance in far less axiomatic terms. I suggest that Hardy's schooling in the interpretive activity of biblical exegesis absorbed from his early religious education resonates in his writings. In particular, my reading of The Mayor of Casterbridge argues for a text that applies 'covenantal hermeneutics', an interpretive activity essential to its inner workings, which functions to produce a novel that is Hebraic rather than Hellenic in character.
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Papers by Alison Fisch Katz