Parables, A-Z

Author: Mills, Kevin

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 39, Numbers 1-2, 1 july 2009 , pp. 186-198(13)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

The notion of the messianic in critical discourse has been revived in recent work by Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Žižek, both of whom understand it as a perceived analogy between Jesus's declaration of the Kingdom of God and a Marxist vision of history; the Christian account of the deliverance of the faithful becomes a parable of historical materialism. This article explores the meaning or significance of parable as a contested and problematical genre that not only gives rise to the messianic, but also makes it impossible to specify, to limit, or to control. This is partly because all forms of narrative resist conceptualization, and partly because the very idea of the parable involves the telling of a story whose meaning is always necessarily displaced.

Keywords: Messianic; Marxist; Christian; parable; narrative

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Glamorgan

Publication date: 2009-07-01

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A supplement to the Modern Language Review, this journal includes articles and reviews on the language and literature of the English-speaking world. Most of the volumes published so far are 'Special Numbers', collections of between fifteen and eighteen commissioned articles on particular topics, such as the impact of the French Revolution on English writers; literature in the modern media; and colonial and imperial themes in literature.