Citation

Candel D. Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik 2008; 56(4): 377-389.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008)

DOI

10.1515/zaa.2008.56.4.377

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The present article tries to find answers for a lack of narrative tension in Graham Swift's The Light of Day. Taking its cue from recent theological approaches to Swift's work, the article starts by analysing the way the novel expresses parental figures as representations of the Biblical God. The analysis yields a sepaŕation of feeling and truth/justice in both the representations and the novel as a whole. The article argues that this separation entails the naturalisation of guilt and evil, which has a deflating effect on the narrative tension of the novel. Through a comparison with Waterland, the article shows that The Light of Day lacks a problematic but seemingly necessary dimension of nature: its teleological dimension. The article concludes by showing how the absence of any teleological dimension in the novel leads to what I call poietic suicide.

Language: en