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“Deep in Mines of Old Belief”: Gnosticism in Modern Canadian Literature

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“Deep in Mines of Old Belief”: Gnosticism in Modern Canadian Literature by Ryan Edward Miller M.A. (English), Simon Fraser University, 2001 B.A. (English), University of British Columbia, 1997 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Ryan Edward Miller 2012 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2012 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for "Fair Dealing." Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. APPROVAL Name: Ryan Edward Miller Degree: Doctor of Philosophy, English Title of Thesis: “Deep In Mines of Old Belief”: Modern Gnosticism in Modern Canadian Literature Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Carolyn Lesjak Associate Professor & Graduate Chair Department of English ______________________________________ Dr. Kathy Mezei, Senior Supervisor Professor Emerita, Department of Humanities ______________________________________ Dr. Sandra Djwa, Supervisor Professor Emerita, Department of English ______________________________________ Dr. Christine Jones, Supervisor Senior Lecturer, Department of Humanities ______________________________________ Dr. Eleanor Stebner, Internal Examiner Associate Professor & Woodsworth Chair, Department of Humanities ______________________________________ Dr. Margery Fee, External Examiner Professor, Department of English University of British Columbia Date Defended/Approved: July 10, 2012 ii Declaration of Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the “Institutional Repository” link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at: <http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesis/project or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. While licensing SFU to permit the above uses, the author retains copyright in the thesis, project or extended essays, including the right to change the work for subsequent purposes, including editing and publishing the work in whole or in part, and licensing other parties, as the author may desire. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Last revision: Spring 09 ABSTRACT This dissertation offers an original contribution to Canadian literary studies by examining how – following the historical exegesis of Gnosticism in a series of publications in the late 1970s – Canadian writers began to incorporate the Gnostic heresies of antiquity into their writing as a subversive, imagistic framework or “language” with which to explore wisdom, salvation, spirituality, sexuality, and gender outside of conventional Christian thought. Using Robertson Davies’s The Rebel Angels (1981), Morley Callaghan’s A Time for Judas (1983), and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996) as the project’s focus, I demonstrate how these literary works use the heresy of Gnosticism as a conceit to confront both the reader and the novels’ characters with the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in knowing the self and the attainment of wisdom. Curiously, as I show, all three novels stand as exceptions within the authors’ respective oeuvres, using meta-fictional techniques such as multiple narrators, mise en abyme, and the blending of the present with an invented biblical or historical past to unsettle the possibility of achieving self- knowledge in a personal or, at times, a national sense. For each novel, the multiple narratives recapitulate the notion of multiple perspectives as found in the historical gospels. Likewise, the incorporation of Gnosticism highlights what the characters (and occasionally the authors themselves) identify as deficits in iii orthodox religion’s ability to account for the spiritual and moral lives of women and the individual’s role in salvation. That Gnosticism found its way into Canadian literature can be attributed, in part, to the sudden availability of Gnostic materials in translation, New Age thinking and spirituality, and – in some cases – a broader (and border) anxiety concerning Canada’s understanding of religion in terms of its own national character, and particularly in relation to its southern neighbour. To this end, a close examination of these three particular novels suggests that these are not separate, unrelated efforts; but rather, that they gesture collectively to alternative interpretations of a constructed past. Keywords: Twentieth Century Canadian Fiction; Gnosticism; Robertson Davies; Morley Callaghan; Margaret Atwood iv DEDICATION For my brother Adrian and my grandmother Wilhelmina, both of whom passed away during the final months of this project. And for my loving parents, whose sacrifice and hard work made it possible for me to get an education. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Completing this dissertation would not have been possible without the patience and support of Professor Kathy Mezei, to whom I am forever grateful. I am also indebted to Professors Sandra Djwa, Christine Jones, Eleanor Stebner, and Margery Fee for their thoughtful feedback and suggestions, and for helping to make the experience a rewarding one. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval ........................................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 PART I: Historical and Literary Framework Chapter 1: The Modern Resurgence of Gnosticism ............................................................... 20 A Problem of Definition ...................................................................................................... 22 Major Players and Influence .............................................................................................. 28 Reasons for the Revival ..................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 2: Gnosticism’s Influence in Modern North American and Canadian Literature ....................................................................................................................................... 42 An Emergence of Gnostic Motifs and Themes ............................................................... 45 Canadian Threads .............................................................................................................. 49 PART II: Canadian Extractions Chapter 3: No Friend to Orthodoxy: Gnosticism, Robertson Davies, and The Rebel Angels ................................................................................................................................. 58 Davies and Jung: A Bridge to Gnosticism ....................................................................... 63 Gnosticism as an Answer .................................................................................................. 68 Gnosticism and the Soul of Canada ................................................................................ 72 The Rebel Angels ............................................................................................................... 74 Earlier Studies on Davies and Gnosticism ...................................................................... 75 Timing and Context ............................................................................................................
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