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The Resource Walker Percy : the last Catholic novelist, Kieran Quinlan

Walker Percy : the last Catholic novelist, Kieran Quinlan

Creator
Summary
In this important study, Kieran Quinlan examines the theological principles and religious views that underlay Walker Percy's writing - primarily his belief in the validity and efficacy of the Roman Catholic faith - and offers some new and controversial conclusions. Quinlan grounds the writer's concerns squarely in the context of the intellectual milieu of the 1940s, citing the influence of Jacques Maritain's The Dream of Descartes and the conversions of prominent contemporaries such as Thomas Merton, Robert Lowell, and Allen Tate. In an illuminating discussion, Quinlan follows the future novelist through the events that would mold his sensibility: his father's suicide in 1929; his rearing by William Alexander Percy, himself a former Catholic, who inculcated the young man with the Stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius; and his contraction of tuberculosis and subsequent long convalescence, during which he studied Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger - thinkers pivotal in his own development as a Catholic novelist. With a mind keenly attuned to philosophical nuances and an impressive grasp of semiotics and theology, Quinlan deftly presents close readings of the novels, from the muted Catholicism of The Moviegoer to the explicit agendas of The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, and The Thanatos Syndrome. He shows how Percy contrasts Catholicism with Stoicism in Lancelot and The Second Coming. He also sheds light on the dense and often abstruse arguments of the philosophical essays, asserting that Percy, despite his early attention to existentialism, was actually a neo-Thomist rationalist who rejected Kierkegaard's irrational "leap of faith." Lost in the Cosmos, Quinlan demonstrates, is an ambitious work requiring that its readers move beyond the realm of a comfortable skepticism. Critical but respectful, Quinlan points out Percy's confusion and frank lack of knowledge on the topic of linguistics. He also questions many aspects of Percy's philosophical and theological views in light of current thinking in those disciplines, stressing in particular Percy's failure to address the very real problems that an evolutionary view of the universe poses for the traditional revealed religions
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
242 p.
Contents
  • Fates of our fathers
  • Science, sickness, and salvation
  • Novelist or philosopher?
  • Philosopher
  • The existentialist
  • Homo viator
  • The rhetoric of faith
  • Philosopher redux
  • Second comings
  • Lost in the cosmos?
  • Final exit
Isbn
9780807120446
Instance
Label
Walker Percy : the last Catholic novelist
Title
Walker Percy
Title remainder
the last Catholic novelist
Statement of responsibility
Kieran Quinlan
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
In this important study, Kieran Quinlan examines the theological principles and religious views that underlay Walker Percy's writing - primarily his belief in the validity and efficacy of the Roman Catholic faith - and offers some new and controversial conclusions. Quinlan grounds the writer's concerns squarely in the context of the intellectual milieu of the 1940s, citing the influence of Jacques Maritain's The Dream of Descartes and the conversions of prominent contemporaries such as Thomas Merton, Robert Lowell, and Allen Tate. In an illuminating discussion, Quinlan follows the future novelist through the events that would mold his sensibility: his father's suicide in 1929; his rearing by William Alexander Percy, himself a former Catholic, who inculcated the young man with the Stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius; and his contraction of tuberculosis and subsequent long convalescence, during which he studied Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger - thinkers pivotal in his own development as a Catholic novelist. With a mind keenly attuned to philosophical nuances and an impressive grasp of semiotics and theology, Quinlan deftly presents close readings of the novels, from the muted Catholicism of The Moviegoer to the explicit agendas of The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, and The Thanatos Syndrome. He shows how Percy contrasts Catholicism with Stoicism in Lancelot and The Second Coming. He also sheds light on the dense and often abstruse arguments of the philosophical essays, asserting that Percy, despite his early attention to existentialism, was actually a neo-Thomist rationalist who rejected Kierkegaard's irrational "leap of faith." Lost in the Cosmos, Quinlan demonstrates, is an ambitious work requiring that its readers move beyond the realm of a comfortable skepticism. Critical but respectful, Quinlan points out Percy's confusion and frank lack of knowledge on the topic of linguistics. He also questions many aspects of Percy's philosophical and theological views in light of current thinking in those disciplines, stressing in particular Percy's failure to address the very real problems that an evolutionary view of the universe poses for the traditional revealed religions
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1945-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Quinlan, Kieran
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Index
index present
LC call number
PS3566.E6912
LC item number
Z832 1996
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Catholic Church
  • Percy, Walker
  • Percy, Walker
  • Percy, Walker
  • Percy, Walker
  • Percy, Walker
  • Catholic Church
  • Christian fiction, American
  • Catholics
  • Christianity and literature
  • Fiction
  • Catholic fiction
  • Catholics in literature
  • Catholic fiction
  • Catholics in literature
  • Catholics
  • Christian fiction, American
  • Christianity and literature
  • Fiction
  • Literature
  • Religion
  • Christianisme
  • Église catholique
  • Littérature religieuse américaine
  • Christianisme et littérature
  • États-Unis (sud) dans la littérature
  • Roman religieux américain
  • Prosa
  • Katholizismus
  • Katholische Literatur
  • Roman
  • Southern States
  • Southern States
  • United States
Label
Walker Percy : the last Catholic novelist, Kieran Quinlan
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-233) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Fates of our fathers -- Science, sickness, and salvation -- Novelist or philosopher? -- Philosopher -- The existentialist -- Homo viator -- The rhetoric of faith -- Philosopher redux -- Second comings -- Lost in the cosmos? -- Final exit
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
242 p.
Isbn
9780807120446
Isbn Type
(cloth : alk. paper)
Lccn
95044232
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (OCoLC)33282131
  • (OCoLC)ocm33282131
Label
Walker Percy : the last Catholic novelist, Kieran Quinlan
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-233) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Fates of our fathers -- Science, sickness, and salvation -- Novelist or philosopher? -- Philosopher -- The existentialist -- Homo viator -- The rhetoric of faith -- Philosopher redux -- Second comings -- Lost in the cosmos? -- Final exit
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
242 p.
Isbn
9780807120446
Isbn Type
(cloth : alk. paper)
Lccn
95044232
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (OCoLC)33282131
  • (OCoLC)ocm33282131

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