I recently changed the tagline of this blog from “Pursuing a theology of the novel” to “Bringing prophetic imagination to the novel”. This is in part because I’ve discovered what I was pursuing. The theology I was looking for in the novel was a theology of prophetic utterance. Having found that this is what I want to explore, I feel now that I can bring it to my thoughts and discussion of the novel. My initial feeling is that in the contemporary novel there is little such utterance to explore. I may be proved wrong.
If I was to summarise my thoughts on the matter they would be this: the contemporary novel is derived from, given legitimacy by and is reflective of the theological consciousness in which it exists. That consciousness is essentially one of secular consumerism, and (being secular) this non-theology serves the interests of those who stand over its laws, politics and economies. And until a prophetic imagination is brought to bear upon this non-theology that imprisons the social reality of the novel, making it say what it is told to say, the rulers of this social reality will continue to stand with mythical legitimacy in the gate of literature.
By prophetic imagination I am not concerned with calling for “revolution” or “regime change” as one hears bandied about in relation to the “Arab Spring”. For this merely replaces one form of power with another while the underlying consciousness and power structures remain the same.
Neither am I concerned with “transformation” which is such a buzzword in England, for to paraphrase a prophet, a leopard cannot changes its spots. I have come to intensely dislike the word, for just as with transcendence, it remains a feat impossible for the human person.
What I am concerned with is the dismantling of the system, first in terms of its consciousness then in terms of its institutions so that New Jerusalems begin to appear that have a different consciousness at heart.
I’m not fool enough to believe that this is humanly possible on a societal level. But that is not the point. It is of imagination that I talk. The radical departures that such a break requires are probably beyond human fathoming and stomaching (though environmental collapse my force it upon us). But such departures can be achieved imaginatively by novels. The novel has the ability to do what we perhaps can’t do: dismantle old self-serving corrupt systems and imagine future ones in which human and social justice take priority.
July 1st, 2011 → 10:40 am
[...] Without Qualities. I find it worth quoting because it contains within it the critical part of the prophetic imagination that establishes the paradigm in which the consciousness of power works. Musil may be writing about [...]