Martha and Mary Re-Imagined: A.S. Byatt and Others
The traditional interpretation of the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) represents the sisters as embodying respectively the active life and the contemplative life and sees the narrative as establishing the superiority of the contemplative life. In A. S. Byatt’s A Whistling Woman two major ch...
| Published in: | Christianity & literature |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
[2016]
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| In: |
Christianity & literature
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| RelBib Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture HC New Testament KBF British Isles TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Meister Eckhart
B Religious Literature History & criticism B Martha and Mary B BYATT, A. S. (Antonia Susan), 1936- B SINGLE mothers B WHISTLING Woman, A (Book) B Velázquez B Conduct of life B Teresa of Avila B A. S. Byatt |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The traditional interpretation of the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) represents the sisters as embodying respectively the active life and the contemplative life and sees the narrative as establishing the superiority of the contemplative life. In A. S. Byatt’s A Whistling Woman two major characters, a priest and a cult leader, repeatedly use this traditional contrast to represent their different concepts of their roles in the religious life. The narrative context, however, implies a questioning of such a simplistic traditional usage. Byatt’s revisionary approach to the biblical narrative is even more apparent in Possession and her short story “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary,” both of which reject the binaries and hierarchies of the conventional view. Byatt’s approach resembles that of Velázquez, on whose early painting, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, her own story is based. More surprisingly, it resembles the treatment of the story by such Christian mystics as Meister Eckhart and Teresa of Avila. All in their different ways silently discard the traditional interpretation of this narrative. |
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| ISSN: | 2056-5666 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Christianity & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0148333116637056 |