Literary Epiphany in the Novel, 1850-1950 : Constellations of the Soul

This book studies literary epiphany as a modality of character in the British and American novel. Epiphany presents a significant alternative to traditional models of linking the eye, the mind, and subject formation, an alternative that consistently attracts the language of spirituality, even in anti-supernatural texts.

Reading literature in relation to both contemporary theory and theology, Sharon Kim studies literary epiphany as the revelation of "being" within the British and American novel, with particular attention to why such realization of character is often attended by the language of spirituality. Epiphany presents a significant alternative to traditional models of linking the eye, the mind, and the self. This book analyzes in what way these epiphanies become "spiritual" and how both character and narrative shape themselves like constellations around such moments. Beginning with James Joyce, ''inventor'' of literary epiphany, and Martin Heidegger, who used the ancient Greek concepts behind ''epiphaneia'' to re-define the concept of Being, Kim offers engaging new readings of novels by Susan Warner, George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner.