“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iaşi Faculty of letters Doctoral School of Philological Studies

CHELBAN (Dorcu) CORINA

REMYTHOLOGIZATIONS OF THE CHRISTIC MYTH IN THE MODERN NOVEL

Doctoral dissertation

Scientific Coordinator,

Ph D Prof. VIORICA S. CONSTANTINESCU

Iaşi, 2012

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Summary

Key words: myth, literary myth, christic myth, myth criticism, myth analysis, remythologization, transposition, transfiguration.

The paper Remythologizations of the Christic myth in the modern novel approaches the Christic myth in some of the 20th century novels. The Christic myth has always aroused the curiosity, not only of writers, but also of critics, in general. This paper aims at deciphering the characters of the Christic myth, subjected to demythologization in literature: Jesus, Judas, Pilate, Mary, Mary Magdalene and the relationships among them. The novel which approaches the Christic myth defines itself and it delimits not starting from its formal characteristics, but most of all through the significance of overtaken deeds. The characters cutout from the canonic text often lose their divine essence, they become contemporary to politically oppressed generations, whose freedom of speech hides behind reshaped history. They lose their divine essence as some of the mythemes of the Christic myth are taken from uncanonical Gospels. In these books, Jesus is presented much more humane and there appears much information concerning His life, which is not found in the canonic text. We must admit that seven of the nine novels, which we have in view, are largely inspired by apocryphal texts. The present work aims at the comparative analysis of the modern and the target text, being structured in five chapters. Thus, in the first chapter, The hermeneutics of the Christic myth, which is a theoretical chapter, I tried to discuss the problem of the literary and of the biblical myth. I approached the myth from various perspectives: sociological (Claude Levy Strauss), psychological (Jung, Freud); I talked about literaray myth and the relation between it and religion, about transposition and transfiguration of the Christic myth. I used Ziolkowski’s theory concerning the two ways of treating the Christic myth (transposition, transfiguration) for analysing the novels we have in view. Another point discussed in this chapter is the biblical intertext and the rewriting of biblical quotations. An important aspect of the paper was the discovery of apocryphal sources for some of these novels. In the second chapter, Resignifications of the Christic myth in the novels of Giovanni Papini and François Mauriac, I analysed two novels: Life of Christ by Giovanni Papini and Life of Jesus by François Mauriac. For this chapter, I chose novels in which the Christic myth appears as a linear biography, tributary to accounts of the canonic Gospels. To Giovanni Papini, Jesus appears alive and integrated in the world, humanized and integrated in the profane. The author follows the biblical chronology, trying to create a new gospel. Papini insists on the human side of his character. This novel is the result of his conversion to catholicism. The novel represents a transcription of the Christic myth, where the author tries to help the readers become aware of the really important things in life: the faith. The author inspired

2 himself both from the canonic Gospels and from apocryphal sources, the information being very well elaborated and integrated in the novel. The Christic myth appears humanized and integrated to the profane. Faithful to the evangelic text, François Mauriac creates a character with a very personal feature. Jesus appears as both man and God, with his passions and forgiveness. In these novels we have a transposition of the Christic myth as the characters belong to the same antic space and they perform the same functions as in the canonic text. The novel of François Mauriac, Life of Jesus, illustrates as Papini’s novel, the misery of man without God. The author respects the canonic Gospels. The main character appears with the Aramaic name: Yeshua. With Mauriac's novel we can remark the interesting narrative structure of the novel, as he makes ample use of the retrospective of biblical events. The style of the novels preserves something from the sobriety of the biblical style. Yeshua is the total opposite of the Judaic mentality. It is original and interesing the interpretation of Mauriac concerning Judas. He belived that he was the one Jesus loved less, and this is the reason why he betrays Jesus. Mauriac defends Judas, as the apostle did not imagined the consequences of his deed. For the other chapters, I chose novels which rely less on canonic writings, being based on information takenover from apocryphal sources. The third chapter, entitled Irony and parody in the transposition and transfiguaration of the Christic myth, treats an ironic and parodic perspective of the Christic myth, in three novels: The Gospel according to Jesus Christ by José Saramago, Christ recrucified and The last temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. Although, these novels have been discussed, there was not yet made a comparative study between the novel and the canonic or apocryphal Gospel which inspired it. In these novels, the authors present the biblic myth using irony and parody. The ironic and parodic perspective make the canonic text lose its mythical character, but in such way that the characters do not lose their quality of heros. Saramago rewrites a biography where Jesus can be found anywhere around us, the important thing is to understand that, above all, the biblical character represents the human nature itself. Jesus, in the heretic version of Saramago, is not only too humane, but he revolts against the supreme will of God. In Saramago's novel, Jesus does not preach love, compassion, humility and symphaty, key moments of his Gospel message, revolutionary for his age. He preaches only repentance, discovering thus the main mecanism which leads man to God. José Saramago reinvents the Christic myth using irony. The author did not want the indecisive recall of the Gospel's content on more or less imaginative bases, but he wished to consider the Bible from a temporal and historical point of view. What shocks most in this novel is the audacity of speculating sacred texts, in order to draw out of the imaginative subsiadiary less significant aspects, much too humane to associate them to the divine. We could state that the author suggests a new hermeneutic of the sacred text, as the biblical events acquire in his novel other conotations. The

3 characters of the Christic myth are humanized, the author emphasizing their psychological state and completing the myth with new scenes from the apocryphal Gospels. We identified a series of characteristics of this novel drawn from apocryphal sources: the creation of another character, Zelomi, the birth of Jesus in a cave (Gospel of Jacob), the mediocre ability of Joseph, the carpenter (Arabic infancy Gospel), the predilection and special friendship with Mary Magdalene, the guilt inherited from the father because of the massacre of the innocents. Saramago distroys the dogme of the virginity of the Vergin Mary, claiming that Jesus was created as any other human. The course of biblical events is changed to confuse the reader. Joseph saves from the massacre only his son, fact for which he will feel guilty the rest of his life. Saramago’s novel proposes a “textual tour” in the biblical universe, especially in the apocryphal Gospels, from where he draws out the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This aspect of his novel scandalized the public opinion then. He takes this information from the Gospel of Philip. The novel develops, in fact, the meeting and the confrontation between Jesus and God. An innovation in Saramago’s novel is also the humanized appereance of the Devil, which is presented as opposed to God. The climax of the novel is the meeting of the three, in a boat in the middle of the sea. God exposes his plan to save the world, and Jesus should only accept it. It is interesting the Devil’s proposition, that God give up all this and receive him back in heaven. God refuses and Jesus must die. The author introduces through his novel the most important western work from a historical perspective. Saramago’s Gospel, far from announcing a good news, communicates a feeling of helplessness and dismay of man in front of God. This represents an example of reversal of the only possible history accepted by the christian mentality. Such an undertaking serves, if not to a remythologization of the biblic text, to the reflection of the reader on this topic. Equally humane appears Jesus in the two novels of Nikos Kazantzakis. The author, in his turn, demythicizes the christic myth through his confrontation with the spirit of the age. The novel Christ recrucified is a transfiguration of the Christic myth, as its characters send through analogy to the characters of the biblic myth. Not turning aside from the biblical characters, the novelistic characters receive their role depending on the resemblence with the biblical ones. Thus, the characters from Licovrisi village must perform the role of the biblical characters. The force of the christian myth appears clearer as it animates some of the characters. The author tries God’s incarnation in a space where the faith has faded away. The village does not respect the rules of the Church anymore, degrading morally from bad to worse. Those who will bring the deliverence in the region are the ones who will play the roles given by the leaders of the village, but for this, they must give up the habits acquired in the real existence. The role of Christ puts Manolios to the hard test of purification and straying away from temptations. A salvation, for the ones overrun by sin, is also the returning of the exiled who have the power of

4 transforming them spiritually. The reader must discover the identification between the real hero (Jesus) and the novelistic character (Manolios). We are, nevertheless, entitled to believe that the author does not desacralize the Gospel’s text, but he realizes, by means of a parable, a modern rewriting of the biblical story. The author fights for the inner freedom of the spirit. In the other novel of Kazantzakis, The last temptation of Christ, we discover a transposition of the Christic myth. But this time, the author overtakes the characters of the myth directly. What interests the author in this myth is the man fighting with himself. The Christic character is created in his novel after the image and likeness of Man. Kazantzakis revived the nestorian heresies, fact which lead to the excommunication of the author. He presents an original and unexpected reinterpretetation of the Gospels’ text. Everything in this novel sends to the Christic myth. Since the first pages, there are indications that send to the apocryphal Gospels, as the author introduces a great deal of information which is contrary to the canonic text. Certainly, one of the aims of the writer was to underline the need of man to have a new type of Saviour, a true hero and martyr, capabale of fighting to the end. The whole novel is centered on the dichotomy flesh-spirit. Kazantzakis’ novel is firstly a messianic bildungsroman. Jesus does not appear as a divine being, but as a man fighting to come to perfection. Another aspect of this novel is the relation of Jesus with Mary Magdalene, which is opposite to the one presented in the canonic Gospels. Jesus is presented in his double nature, therefore he can love. Judas is also reconfigurated in this novel. The author presents him as the true friend of Jesus, his best brother, the only one capabale of understanding him. Kazantzakis’ Jesus is never predictible. The text remains open to interpretations. The novel ends with the last temptation of Christ. Jesus represents earthly life, in the role of father and head of family. Everything happens, of course, in the dream Jesus has on the cross, after being crucified by the romans. The sense of the last temptation, that devil uses, is to determine the Son of Man to regret everything that he lost through the decisions he made. Kazantzakis’ novel constantly underlines the idea that man and God depend one on other and that they have to redeem themselves mutually. The Christic myth is presented from another perspective than the biblic one, its presentation being seen as a desecration. In the fourth chapter, we presented two novels which have their origin in the apocryphal Gospel of Nycodemus: The Gospel according to Pilate by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt and Pontius Pilate by Roger Caillois. The books of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt are among the best sellers in France. The Christic myth present in his novel, The Gospel according to Pilate, acquires new significations, the author prooving originality and newness in rewriting the myth. The name of his character is Yeshua, christic figure reshaped by the author. His novel comprises two parts: The confession of a convict on the eve of his arrest

5 and The Gospel according to Pilate. In the first part of the novel, Yeshua introspects himself, analysing his feelings. This confession permits a global view of Yeshua’s life. The author revises those scenes that the evangelists recorded in the canonic texts. Besides, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt inserted in this confession episodes taken from apocryphal texts or gospels invented by himself. Judas becomes here the beloved apostle, the one who believes in Jesus’s Christhood, so that he is ready to takeover all the risks. He accomplishes the most difficult mission and he betrays from divine orders. The novelist gives the work a personal, particular dimension, a new tinge which will turn his novel in a new and interesting literary material. The second part of the novel takes the shape of an epistolary novel. Yeshua disappears after the crucifixion, and Pilate goes to search for him. The events are presented here from the interior of Pilate’s consciousness. He is a rational character who does not believe in the God of the Hebrews and in Yeshua’s resurrection. Despite his ruggedness, he is a philosophical character who wants to save rationality, using only the intellect. At the level of the sentence, we can observe the insertion of many quotations, autocitations, and the evident presence of the hypotext. The author tries to reach the interiority of his character, making him much more humane. He is, for Schmitt, a character full of doubt, who needs to believe. The novelist introduces new characters within the Christic myth, and he wishes to examine the aspects of the different philosophical scools, establishing thus a dialogue with the christian message. Schmitt’s abridgement, sometimes constrained by mythical invariations or historic deeds, sends nevertheless to the remoulding of the characters, assigning them new semnifications. In the same chapter, we analysed Pontius Pilate by Roger Caillois. The subject of his novel is quite delicate: the emergence of christianity. Though he does not appear as main character in the novel, Jesus irradiates from it. It is around him that the structure of the novel is built. The one who presents the flow of events, here, is Pilate. Creating around the procurator an aversion climate, the author accentuates the pression bestowed upon him. Pilate must give a sentence regarding Jesus, reason for which he consults various persons with different origins and ideas. For them, Jesus is a political problem, a rebell who must be banished, but also the Son of God who must be crucified. Caillois presents an original end, in which Pilate proclaims Jesus’s innocence, ordering his discharge. Pilate’s sentence constitutes the great originality of the novel. One of the motifs of the Christic myth is reduced here to a corresponding section: Pilate is not the one who leads Jesus to death, he is the one who judges him. Pilate chooses a discharge that the myth does not accept. He refuses Jesus’s crucifixion in deference to the need of truth which fascinates and sustains him. Pilate changes the Christic myth and the reader’s expectations by not crucifying the prophet, though all the interlocutors wish his crucifixion.

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In the last chapter, we dealt with two novels inspired from apocryphal sources: The Gospel of Judas by Roberto Pazzi and The Glory by Giuseppe Berto. The apocryphal which served as inspiration source for both works was The Gospel of Judas, where the perspetive upon this character was completely changed. The ideas of this work went round for centuries, influencing fiction. If in the canonic text Judas appears as a traitor, here, in the apocryphal Gospel, he is the most beloved apostle. Thus, the Christic myth is presented from a different perspective, that of the traitor. The use of apocryphal sources is decisive in these two novels: The Gospel of Judas by Roberto Pazzi and The Glory by Giuseppe Berto. In Pazzi’s novel, what becomes important is the insertion of the christic myth within another narration. Despite its title, the novel does not send to the structure of canonic writings. Jesus is no more the main character, but Judas is. The entire action concentrates around the existence of the apocryphal and the true personality of Jesus. In spite of its title, The Gospel of Judas by Roberto Pazzi does not send to the structure of the Gospels, which are only a pretext. Pazzi resorts sometimes, in his novel, at a process of rendition of Jesus and Judas, but also to a process of destabilization of the material support and of the Christic gesture. He does not dissociate the emitter from the message, but he establishes a climate of general doubt and insecurity. The whole action of the novel tries to discern the existence of the apocryphal and of the Christic myth. The reader will discern Yeshua’s myth through a series of filters. Yeshua’s story is inserted here in another story, which takes place in Tiberius’ time. Yeshua becomes the reference point of the roman emperor who tries, at any cost, to find out his story from Cornelia. In the novel’s economy, Yeshua is sidelined as he appears in a single part of the narration fragmented in other smaller narrations. But Tiberius will change the Gospel of Judas, writing another text to save his empire. The most important problem of the novel is the “untruth”, the force of corruption that the politic and literary power possesse. It is also the power of vocality and of writing. Judas, in the novel of Giuseppe Berto, incarnates in a great measure the ideas of the novelist. He is endowed with a very complex personality, which has developped in a prolific background and in propitious circumstances. Judas narrates in the first person the story of his life and of his encounter with Jesus, displaying the fascination wielded upon him by the christic character, while he explores His divinity. Judas ponders upon Jesus’s personality and tries to find out his mistery. Acting in this manner, he receives the credit of evangelist. The two are presented in contrast: dark-light. Judas is at the crossroads between dark and light; he becomes dark when he sells Christ, as Jesus goes to death with obstinacy. Judas understands that for the Teacher death is the absolut term. The character of Judas, before becoming important in history, was reinvented by it. His image does not correspond to the one in the canonic Gospels, appearing here as an intellectual, who wittingly joins the zealots. He knows well the sacred texts and he is completely devoted to God. Berto’s novel remains one of the important works dedicated to Judas.

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Our research aims to follow and reach also some realist objectives. The objectives that we had in view can be formulated in the following manner: the study of the interpretative generosity offered by the Christic myth in the novels we proposed; the study of the connection between myth and the literary text in which it appears; the highlighting of the parameters which structure the mythic and the biblic dimension of the proposed works: space, time, characters, scriptural intertext, narrative design inspired from the Bible and from the apocryphal texts, but also the “biblic” style of the writers. Remythologizations of the christic myth in the modern novel is an interdisciplinary paper which comprises knowledge from various domains: history, poetics, stylistics, myth criticism, anthropology and literature. As work methods employed in the textual analysis of the proposed novels we can mention: the descriptive method, the historical-literary method and the comparative method. The originality of the paper consists in: the selection of the representative novels in order to demonstrate the apocryphal resignification of the Christic myth; the atempt of demonstrating the actuality of the Christic myth in the modern novel; the confrontation of the Christic myth with the novel in which the myth is presented from an apocryphal perspective; the demonstration of the transposition and transfiguration of the biblic myth in the 20th century novels. The aim of the present work was the achievement of a comparative study of known and less known novels constructed around the Christic myth in the 20th century. We tried to carry out a deep analysis of the novelistic message, correlating it with the biblic text or with the apocryphal source. All the biblic narrations are selective and incomplete. We can observe that the modern literature tends to humanize Jesus. The authors dealing nowadays with the Christic myth try to create a less divine Jesus, depossessed of his miraculous nature. The Christic myth acquires in these novels new meanings. Its rewriting is not just a way of illustrating, but also of pondering upon the present world. In our secular age, where the freedom of speech exists, anyone can write anything on the subject.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...... 4 Chapter I THE HERMENEUTIC OF THE CHRISTIC MYTH 1.1 Around the myth. Searching for a definition of the myth ...... 11 1.1.1 Myth and religion ...... 17 1.1.2 Literary myth...... 18 1.2 The biblic myth and the literature. The transposition of the biblic myth in literature...... 24 1.2.1 The biblic intertext...... 29 1.2.2 The rewriting of biblic quotations...... 30 1.3 The Christic myth between fiction and non-fiction...... 31 1.3.1 The attestation of Jesus in history...... 31 1.3.2 Jesus as literary character...... 33 1.3.3 The apocryphal: inspiration source for the 20th and 21st century literature...... 39

Chapter II REMYTHOLOGIZATIONS OF THE CHRISTIC MYTH IN THE NOVELS OF GIOVANNI PAPINI AND FRANÇOIS MAURIAC 2.1 Giovanni Papini – an atheist who converts...... 43 2.1.2 The rewriting of the Christic myth in Life of Christ by Giovanni Papini....45 2.2 François Mauriac – a strong religious requisition...... 63 2.2.1 Biblical references in Life of Jesus by François Mauriac...... 65

Chapter III IRONY AND PARODY IN THE TRANSPOSITION AND TRANSFIGURATION OF THE CHRISTIC MYTH 3.1 Irony. Concept and clasifications...... 80 3.2 Ironic transposition of the Christic myth in the novel The Gospel according to Jesus Christ by José Saramago...... 83 3.2.1 The problems of intertextuality in the novel of José Saramago...... 100 3.2.2 The abolition of good and evil...... 102 3.2.3 The universe of the character through its connection with the myth, fiction and history...... 104 3.3 The parody in the novel...... 111 3.3.1 Parodic transfiguration of the Christic myth in Christ recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis...... 113

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3.4 The transposition seen as desecration in The last temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis…………………………………...... 131

Chapter IV Gospel of Nycodemus (Acta Pilati) intertext for The Gospel according Pilate by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt and Pontius Pilate by Roger Caillois 4.1 Pontius Pilate- a controversial character...... 154 4.2 The estetics of demythicization in the novel The Gospel according to Pilate by Eric- Emmanuel Schmitt...... 157 4.2.1 The politic and religious context in Yeshua’s time...... 161 4.2.2 A man-character or a God-character...... 163 4.2.3 The relation with the Gospels: the scene of temptation in wilderness...... 167 4.3 Searching for the lost body...... 170 4.3.1 Demythicizing characters...... 171 4.4 Modes of rewriting the Christic myth at Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt...... 179 4.4.1 Textual reviews...... 181 4.4.2 Narrative techniques in the novel...... 86 4.4.3 The creator’s liberties...... 189 4.5 Pontius Pilate by Roger Caillois...... 193 4.5.1 The sacred sociology in the work of Roger Caillois...... 193 4.5.2 The transposition of the Christic myth in the novel Pontius Pilate by Roger Caillois……………...... 194

Chapter V THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JUDAS - INTERTEXT IN THE MODERN NOVEL 5.1 Searching for the historic character Judas (the universal convict)...... 205 5.1.1 Judas in the canonic Gospels...... 206 5.1.2 Judas in the apocryphal Gospels...... 209 5.1.3 Judas in The Golden Legend...... 211 5.2 Judas-literary character...... 213 5.3 The Christic myth inserted in another narration in The Gospel according to Judas by Roberto Pazzi...... 218 5.4 Parodic hermeneutic in the novel The Glory by Giuseppe Berto...... 228

CONCLUSIONS...... 240 BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 251

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

I PRIMARY SOURCES

a) Literary works

BERTO, GIUSEPPE, La Gloria, Editione BUR La Scala, Milano, 2001.

CAILLOIS, ROGER, Pilat din Pont, traducere de Cătălin D. Constantinescu, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2005.

KAZANTZAKIS, NIKOS, Ultima ispită a lui Hristos, traducere de Ion Diaconescu, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2011.

PAPINI,GIOVANNI, Viaţa lui Iisus, traducere de Alexandru Marcu, Editura Ago-Temporis, Chişinău, 1991.

PAZZI, ROBERTO, Evanghelia lui Iuda, traducere de Mihai Banciu, Editura Leda, Bucureşti, 2006.

SARAMAGO, JOSÉ, Evanghelia după Isus Cristos, traducere de Mioara Caragea, Editura Polirom, 2003.

SCHMITT, ERIC-EMMANUEL, Evanghelia după Pilat, traducere de Alexandra Medrea, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2010. b) Scriptural sources Biblia sau Sfânta Scriptură, Complexul de Edituri al Bisericii Ortodoxe din Moldova, Chişinău, 2004.

BĂDILIŢĂ, CRISTIAN, Evanghelii apocrife, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2002.

II SECONDARY SOURCES

a) Specialized literature

ANGELESCU, SILVIU, Mitul şi literatura, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1999.

DURAND, GILBERT, Figuri mitice si chipuri ale operei: De la mitocritica la mitanaliza, traducere de Irina Bădescu, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, 1998.

DURAND, GILBERT, Introducere în mitologie. Mituri şi societăţi, traducere de Corin Braga, Editura Dacia, Cluj Napoca, 2004.

FRYE, NORTHROP, Marele Cod - Biblia şi literatura, traducere de Aurel Sasu şi Ioana Stanciu, Editura Atlas, Bucureşti, 1999.

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b) Literary theory

CIFOR, LUCIA, Principii de hermeneutică literară, Editura Universităţii „Al.I.Cuza”, Iaşi, 2006.

GENETTE, GÉRARD, Figuri, traducere de Angela Ion şi Irina Mavrodin, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1978.

GENETTE, GÉRARD, Introducere în arhitext, traducere de Ion Pop, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1994.

LESOVICI, MIRCEA DORU, Ironia, Editura Institutul European, Iaşi, 1999.

III DICTIONARIES

CONSTANTINESCU, VIORICA S., TERCATIN, BARUCH, Dicţionar de personaje biblice şi reprezentarea lor în artă Vechiul Testament, Editura Hasefir, Bucureşti, 2002.

CONSTANTINESCU, VIORICA S., Dictionar de personaje biblice şi reprezentarea lor în artă Noul Testament, Editura Universitas XXI, Iaşi, 2005.

FOUILLOUX, DANIELLE, ANNE LANGLOIS, Dicţionar cultural al Bibliei, traducere de Ana Vancu, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, 2006.

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