A Study Of Religious Archetype Writing In Marilynne Robinson’s Lila

Marilynne Robinson(1943-)is an influential novelist,essayist,and humanist in contemporary America.Robinson has written four novels among which her Gilead trilogy have won many literary honors including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction,National Book Award,the Orange Prize,and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.In the Gilead trilogy,Robinson invents Gilead,a town of piousness and humanism in northwestern America.Robinson has a pattern of religious metaphor and biblical archetypal elements,making her a profoundly rare and unique American writer who keeps writing about faith in the postmodern context.Taking Robinson’s latest novel Lila as a subject of study,based on Northrop Frye’s archetypal criticism,the thesis intends to analyze the motifs,imagery,typology,naming and characters in Lila and their connections with biblical archetypes.The thesis firstly makes an analysis of the origin of Robinson’s religious belief,only to find that she has been greatly affected by the Protestant Calvinism,transcendentalism and humanism.She is a firm Calvinist and also humanist.Secondly,with the analysis of forgiveness,resurrection and loneliness in Lila,the author finds that Robinson has indicated a way in which person and person,man and God and man and nature get along with each other in postmodern society.The thesis also interprets the apocalyptic imagery of water,fire and light;and the demonic imagery of knife and credenza in Lila,pointing out that the archetypal imagery with connotations enhances the religious atmosphere.And the thesis discusses the Protestant typology and naming of people and place,embodying that Robinson calls for seeking the spiritual world beyond the material world.Lastly,according to the analysis of the displacement of the archetypal character,such as angel,the Wise Old man and Ruth,the author concludes that Robinson highlights the radiance of humanity in Lila.Based on the analysis of the archetypal elements in Robinson’s novel,the author finds that Calvinism with humanistic tendencies has greatly infiltrated in Robinson’s literary works.Marilynne Robinson makes an attempt to defend her faith through writing,highlighting a call to pursue for the spiritual world,and giving an insight into the realistic problems in postmodern society.