The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature: Five Hundred Years of Literary Homecomings PDF
Preview The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature: Five Hundred Years of Literary Homecomings
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi fi Biblical Re gurations The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi BIBLICAL REFIGURATIONS GeneralEditors:JamesCrossleyandFrancescaStavrakopoulou This innovative series offers new perspectives on the textual, cultural, and interpretativecontextsofparticularbiblicalcharacters,invitingreaderstotake a fresh look at the methodologies of Biblical Studies. Individual volumes employdifferentcriticalmethodsincludingsocial-scientificcriticism,critical theory, historical criticism, reception history, postcolonialism, and gender studies, while subjects include both prominent and lesser-known figures fromtheHebrewBibleandtheNewTestament. PublishedTitlesInclude: JeremySchipper DisabilityandIsaiah’sSufferingServant KeithBodner Jeroboam’sRoyalDrama MarkLeuchter SamuelandtheShapingofTradition LouiseJ.Lawrence SenseandStigmaintheGospels:Depictionsof Sensory-DisabledCharacters WilliamJohnLyons JosephofArimathea:AStudyinReceptionHistory JamesCrossley JesusandtheChaosofHistory:RedirectingtheLife oftheHistoricalJesus NyashaJunior ReimaginingHagar:BlacknessandBible OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi fi Biblical Re gurations GENERALEDITORS:JAMESCROSSLEYANDFRANCESCASTAVRAKOPOULOU The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature Five Hundred Years of Literary Homecomings ALISON M. JACK 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OXDP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©AlisonM.Jack Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin Impression: Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber: ISBN–––– Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CRYY LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi Acknowledgements This book has had a long gestation, and I have been encouraged along the wayby many people. Colleagues at the School of Divinity, UniversityofEdinburgh, havebeensupportiveandinterested,fullof suggestions and ideas. Church groups who have heard me talk about theparablesandtheProdigalSoninparticularhavebeenkeentoshare theirinsightswithme,andIhaveappreciatedthisverymuch. The bookwasfinishedduringaperiodofresearch leave,andIam gratefultotheUniversityofEdinburghfortheopportunitytobefree ofotherresponsibilitiesandtofocusondrawingthematerialtogether. TwoshortperiodsofstudyatWestminsterCollege,Cambridge,helped toconsolidateideasandfillinresearchgaps,andwereofgreatbenefitin thefinalyearofwriting. The editorialteam at Oxford UniversityPresshas beensupportive andunderstandingthroughouttheprocess,andIwouldliketothank themfortheguidancetheyhavegivenme. Thetitleofthebookwasthesubjectofsomediscussion.‘Literature in English’ seemed to raise unmet expectations, and so ‘English and AmericanLiterature’wasagreed.Thisshouldnotbetakentodown- playthetextsfromthefieldofScottishliteraturewhicharesoimport- ant throughout the book, and I hope my friends and colleagues workinginthatfieldwillunderstandthebalancingactthathadtobe struckbetweenfulldescriptionandaworkabletitle. Mychildren,IainandFiona,havebeenpatientanduncomplaining whenIhavefelttheneedtopointoutaProdigalSonreferenceinevery film,televisionprogramme,orbookwehaveexperiencedtogether.As always,Iowethemmythanksfortheirunfailingresilienceandsense of fun. Drew Brown was an encouraging and supportive presence as thebookneareditscompletion. Finally,IdedicatethisbooktoIanCampbell,EmeritusProfessorof ScottishandVictorianLiteratureattheUniversityofEdinburgh,who hasbeenateacher,mentor, andfriend forthirtyyears now,and who continuestobeasupportiveadvocateofmywork. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi vi Acknowledgements Excerptsfrom‘CrusoeinEngland’,‘Over,Illustrationsanda Complete Concordance’, ‘The Prodigal’, and ‘Questions of Travel’ from Poems by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright © by The Alice H. Methfessel Trust. Publisher’s Note and compilation copyright © by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Also published in The Complete Poems – volume. In the UK, these poems are found in Poems by Elizabeth Bishop published by Chatto and Windus. Reproduced by permissionoftheRandomHouseGroupLtd.©. Permission to quote from the poetry of Iain Crichton Smith has beengrantedbyCarcanetPress(<http://www.carcanet.co.uk>),andis acknowledged with gratitude. The lines quoted are all from Iain Crichton Smith, New Collected Poems, edited and introduced by MattMcGuire(Manchester:CarcanetPressLtd,). ‘Never Go Back’ by Felix Dennis, taken from A Glass Half Full (Hutchinson, ), © Felix Dennis, is reproduced by kind permis- sionoftheFelixDennisLiteraryEstate. A short section of Chapter is adapted from my article ‘Henry James’s“TheJollyCorner”:RevisitingtheParableoftheProdigalSon (Luke .–)’ in Journal of the Bible and its Reception, vol. . ():pp.–,andisusedwithpermission. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi Contents . ReadingtheProdigalSon . TheProdigalSoninElizabethanLiterature . TheProdigalSonandShakespeare . FemaleVictorianNovelistsandtheProdigalSon . TheAmericanShortStoryandtheProdigalSon . ProdigalMinistersinFiction . TheProdigalSoninPoetry:ElizabethBishop andIainCrichtonSmith . Conclusion Bibliography Index OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi 1 Reading the Prodigal Son ‘Prodigal’isanadjectivewithachequeredpast.ItsLatinrootisprodigus, whichdenotesalavishnesswhichismorallyneutral.IngeneralEnglish usage,stronglynegativeconnotationsattenditssenseofwastefulsquan- dering. However, more recently, ‘prodigal’ has cut loose from such negativity to take on a much more positive understanding which includes waywardness, perhaps, but more strongly still, a willingness toseek out adventure, even self-fulfilment,and a certain generosity of spirit.Today,thewordismostoftenusedinthecontextofJesus’parable aboutafatherandtwosons(Luke:–),theyoungerofwhomis givenstarbillinginthetitle:itis‘TheParableoftheProdigalSon’ in common English usage.1 This son is often simply referred to as ‘the Prodigal’, and a negative judgement is certainly implied by Jerome’s reference in the fourth century CE to the parable as a story about the contrastbetween‘theprudentandprodigalsons’.2WhenIhaveintro- duced the parable to students in my Bible and Literature classes, 1 Themostsignificantearlyassociationof‘prodigal’withthischaracterinan EnglishtranslationoftheBibleistobefoundintheGenevaBible,whichwasfirst publishedwithboththeOldandNewTestamentsin.Heretheparableis introducedinthetextastheparable‘oftheProdigalSonne’,andthepageheading repeats this, although the word is not found in the story itself. The same page headingwasusedintheKingJamesVersionoftheBiblepublishedin,sealing the ongoing connection between the parable and the prodigality of the younger son.Thehistoryoftheword’sassociationwiththeparableischartedindetailin EzraHorbury,‘AristotelianEthicsandLuke:–inEarlyModernEngland’, JournalofReligiousHistory.(June):pp.–. 2 Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men, ch. , quoted in Amy-Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (New York: HarperCollins,),p..
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