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- Title
Gnostic Magic in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
- Authors
Brown, Paula
- Abstract
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell has been lauded since its publication in 2005 for its style, imagination, and comedy, but has not been interpreted as primarily a novel of ideas or philosophical speculation. I interpret Susanna Clarke's novel as advancing a type of Gnostic mysticism that exposes the limitations of orthodoxy and of institutionalized spirituality. This Gnosticism is expressed in three ways: as an intuition of the divine source within the self; in a Manichean worldview, pitting a corrupt, natural world against a pure, unfallen world; and finally in the representation of an antagonistic trinity rather than the unified trinity of the Orthodox Church. Through the recurring motifs of sacrifice and crucifixion, the novel conveys a non-egoistic solution to the violence and rivalry of the modern world.
- Subjects
JONATHAN Strange &; Mr. Norrell (Book); CLARKE, Susanna, 1959-; GNOSTICISM in literature; ORTHODOX Eastern Church; SPIRITUALITY
- Publication
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 2012, Vol 23, Issue 2, p239
- ISSN
0897-0521
- Publication type
Article