Literature and Scripture: An "Impossible Filiation"
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Document Type
Lecture
Series/Event
Lecture
Abstract
Renowned literary scholar, prolific theorist and critic, J. Hillis Miller earned fame in the eighties as one of the four "Yale School" critics, a group largely responsible for introducing deconstruction to American literary studies. This lecture discusses the relation between literature and Scripture by way of what Derrida says about “impossible filiation.” Miller will take Beloved and The Divine Comedy as examples of literature and the Abraham and Isaac story and the Mary Magdalene story at the end of Luke (recognition of the risen Christ) as examples of Scriptural stories. Miller will claim they make quite different claims on the reader's allegiance, but that Western literature, even the most secular, inherits essential things from Scripture. Miller will conclude by discussing the so-called “turn to religion” in the humanities today from the perspective of a long career that has seen fads come and go, and religion relocate in university life.
Publication Date
10-18-2007
Recommended Citation
Miller, J. Hillis, "Literature and Scripture: An "Impossible Filiation"" (2007). Conferences and Lectures. 1587.
https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/hh_av_conferences/1587