Abstract

This dissertation in the field of Religion and Literature examines current conceptualizations of the sacred and representation. It attempts to provide an answer to the question of how the sacred can be understood and represented in light of poststructuralism's problematization of all representation. In Chapter One a brief history of theoretical formulations of sacred representation shows that the religious symbol is the primary medium for such representation. The thought of three contemporary theorists of the symbol is then summarized and compared. These three theorists are Mircea Eliade, a historian of religions; the existential theologian Paul Tillich; and Paul Ricoeur, who writes across many disciplines but may be understood as a philosopher of language. The arguments of Jacques Derrida are then brought to bear on the idea of the symbol. Derrida's deconstructive agenda is shown to allow for no such concept as the symbol, since for Derrida there are only signs, and these represent no referent or presence but only other signs. At the end of the chapter, a theory of the symbol is proposed that synthesizes the insights of the theories of Eliade, Tillich, and Ricoeur and those of Derrida. A distinction is made between the sacred symbol, which is a representation that mediates the presence of the sacred, and the religious symbol, which functions like Derrida's sign. Chapter Two shows how the differences between signs and religious symbols and sacred symbols plays out in the life of the female narrator of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing. Chapter Three examines the sacred experiences of the characters in Louise Erdrich's Tracks in terms of Western religious symbolism and Native American understandings of the sacred. Chapter Four explains the postmodern representation of the sacred by way of Julian Barnes' A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters. The conclusion then summarizes and relates the readings of the three novels. Finally, three emerging sacred symbols--the body, the earth, and death--are shown to be contemporary representations of the sacred