Waiting for the Miraculous: An Essay on Patience in American Literature
This work concerns object relations in American literature in the lyric mode over the past fifty years and its relationship to dealing with loss and illness. More specifically, how do people relate to things —anything from pocket watches to pieces of ribbon—that not only sustain hope but also make the process of waiting more bearable? This study will begin with an overview of object relations theory in literature, followed by an analysis of the novels and essays of four writers from different decades—Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Annie Dillard, and Teju Cole. The way in which these authors portray object relations denotes a form of patience in which one’s personal longings, contained in physical things, aspire for universal understanding.
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