A dream of peace
Subtitle: art and death in the fiction of John Gardner
By: Ronald Grant Nutter.
Series: Modern American literature,; v. 9; Modern American literature (New York, N.Y.) ;; v. 9.
Publisher: Peter Lang; Lang AG International Academic Publishers, Peter
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
Subjects: Gardner, John, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation.; Death in literature.
Description: The American novelist John Gardner died in a motorcycle accident in 1982. His novels, in which death and guilt are brooding presences, continue to attract attention. This study reviews Gardner's life and work, examining how his own tragic past prodded him to explore life's deepest mysteries. It breaks new ground by demonstrating how the philosophies of Susanne Langer and Alfred North Whitehead greatly influenced his thought.

Gardner wrote that fiction is a "vivid and continuous dream." Drawing on the fields of philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, and ritual studies, it becomes clear that the vision he would have us dream is a vision of "peace," a Whiteheadian notion that says life is meaningful despite the ongoing presence of intractable evils like death and guilt.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-232) and ijdex.