Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2009 Saltwater Sacraments and Backwoods Sins: Contemporary Atlantic Canadian Literature and the Rise of Literary Catholicism Andrew Peter Atkinson Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Atkinson, Andrew Peter, "Saltwater Sacraments and Backwoods Sins: Contemporary Atlantic Canadian Literature and the Rise of Literary Catholicism" (2009). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1074. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1074 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada SALTWATER SACRAMENTS AND BACKWOODS SINS: CONTEMPORARY ATLANTIC CANADIAN LITERATURE AND THE RISE OF LITERARY CATHOLICISM by Andrew Peter Atkinson Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English, Acadia University, 2002 Master of Arts in English, Carleton University, 2004 Master of Arts in Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2005 DISSERTATION Submitted to the Department of Religion and Culture in the Faculty of the Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies Wilfrid Laurier University © Andrew Peter Atkinson 2009 Abstract In the 1990s, Canadian readers were offered a new literary trend: the Atlantic Canadian Catholic novel. In this dissertation, I examine works from six authors whose writing reflects the scope of this trend and I argue for a consideration of their collective impact on our social imaginary. The bulk of my argument is devoted to an examination of the Catholic religious content in the five novels and one memoir: David Adams Richards' Bay of Love and Sorrows (1998); Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees (1996); Lynn Coady's Strange Heaven (1996); Wayne Johnston's Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir (1999); Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails (1996); and Michael Crummey's The Wreckage (2005). These novels are indicative of what is more broadly referred to as the contemporary "return of religion" in Western discourse and politics. But what exactly does this revitalized religious discourse tell us? It is my contention that the rise of the Catholic novel in Atlantic Canada signals shifts in what we consider as the "religious" and the "secular." I offer an account of this shifting religious-secular dynamic in my introduction. While each of the works I study is unique, there are consistent theological constructs that are repeated through them all. I have called these consistencies a "theological aesthetic." They include: firstly, the analogy of being - a specific linguistic pattern for considering the similarities and differences between God and humanity; secondly, the spiritual sense - a way of reading Scripture which allows for figures and events to take on significance that resonates beyond the literal element of the text; and thirdly, gathered time - a description of the way that eternity relates to temporal beings. i These three aspects of the theological aesthetic offer insight into contemporary Western understandings of the relations between the secular (nature) and the religious (grace). I argue that instead of putting the emphasis on the extreme difference between nature and grace, as was done by the influential Protestant movements that underwrote the earlier Atlantic Canadian imaginary, the current shifts have allowed for a more broadly defined nature-grace continuum. To understand this shift we require a fuller distinction between what I call "Secular I" (as described in most earlier secularization theories) and "Secular II" (now sometimes referred to as the "post-secular"). In my final chapter, I offer an explanation of this shifting religious-secular dynamic through an historical overview of key texts in the Atlantic literary canon. I theorize the shift from a stable divide between the religious and the secular that was managed by a general Protestant ethos, to a more stringent privatization of religion. While many have naturalized the resulting secularism, I claim that this recent Catholic literary trend challenges our preconceived notions about what constitutes secular and religious contributions, and thus, frustrates any notion of purity on the side of the secular or the religious. Understood this way, the contemporary Catholic novel in Atlantic Canada, which could stereotypically be thought to express marginal concerns, reflects a post-secular innovation that represents a transnational critique of the Protestant structures that underpin our social imaginary. ii Acknowledgements I am grateful for two events that occurred during my undergraduate degree at Acadia: I discovered that a man from my home town was thought to be one of "Canada's greatest living writers" - David Adams Richards - and I was asked to interview George Elliott Clarke just after he had won the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 2001. Atlantic Canadian literature became even more alluring through Parker Duchemin's course, which introduced me to several of the works that I have considered here. Impressions from that class lingered with me as I reread (and reread) these works. It was during Peter Erb's course on Charles Taylor that the project first began to take shape and the first pages were written; many more were influenced by his classes on Augustine and Newman. His conversations, editing suggestions, and encouragement have helped me immensely; without Peter's wisdom this study and I would be lost in a selva oscura. I have also received sound advice and encouragement from Carol Duncan, Norm Klassen, and Madelaine Hron. Along the way, my many conversations with Scott Barnes, Holly Pearse, Chris Cutting, Margie Patrick, Siobhan Chandler, Mitra Bikkhu, and Brent Hagerman have honed my critical skills and lightened the scholarly load. I also want to thank Lynn Coady for her impressions of Atlantic Canadian Catholicism, and Herb Wyile for accepting my proposal to present at Surfs Up: The Rising Tide of Atlantic Canadian Literature before this project was a twinkle in my eye. My family has been extremely supportive of this project. My parents, Terry and Brenda, have done "theology on their knees" on my behalf. Graham and Janette Wood have given me safe haven on many a weekend, and offered me sound advice on my topic iii - even reading SSHRC proposals!1 My wife, Amanda, has been an inspiration since those long-passed days at Acadia. Her ceaseless support (and sharp editing eye) has kept me moving forward. I also want to thank my little guy, Gavin, for his helpful distractions, which remind me of the limits of scholarship, and the unfathomable mystery hidden in the most mundane things. For all of your help, I thank you. 1 This project was funded by a Canada Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). IV Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents v Abbreviations vi Introduction Atlantic Canadian Literature, Post-Secularity, and Theological Aesthetics 1 The Political Landscape 1. Violence, Deception, and the Mystery of Truth in David Adams Richards' 43 Bay of Love and Sorrows 2. Secular Purgatory: Between Dante and Ernesto Laclau in Ann-Marie 82 MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees Transitional Dilemmas 3. Blinding Ennui: Post-Augustinian Nihilism in Lynn Coady's Strange 113 Heaven 4. Imagining the Spirit in the Rock: Wayne Johnston's Baltimore's Mansion 152 and the Catholic Imaginary Enchantment in a Secular Age 5. Enchantment in a Secular Age: The Ineluctable Modality of the 177 Metaphysical in Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails 6. Natured Grace: Michael Crummey's The Wreckage and the Sacrament of 222 Cunnilingus Conclusion 7. Rewriting the Narrative of Vacuity: Placing the Protestants in Atlantic 252 Canadian Literature Conclusion: Apocalyptic and the Given 297 Works Cited 302 v For citation purposes the following works will be reference in the abbreviated form listed here: SH - Coady, Lynn. Strange Heaven.