num_pages: 286
description: John Banville's protagonists long for a sense of completion that neither their own psyches nor the world can satisfy. His novels, as works of art, enact a literary analogy of this tension by displaying elements of realism and postmodernism together. Four main themes present in his novels are traced in this work: elucidation of the symbiotic link between the terms 'significance' and 'meaning'; the idea of the divided self; the centrality of conflict; and the way all of these themes show how Banville's work can be seen to form a cultural and psychic bridge between mysticism and postmodernism, portraying human consciousness in a bind of being forever trapped in language.
language: English
title: The Quest for God in the Novels of John Banville 1973-2005: A Postmodern Spirituality
titlecomplete: The Quest for God in the Novels of John Banville 1973-2005: A Postmodern Spirituality
publisher: Edwin Mellen Pr