Playing the Hand We Are Dealt: The Counterpoint of Fate and Freewill in Literature and Life

Jackson, Michael

ISBN 10: 1805397044 / ISBN 13: 9781805397045

Published by Berghahn Books, 2024

About this Item

228 pages. 9.00x6.00x9.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-1805397044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Playing the Hand We Are Dealt: The Counterpoint of Fate and Freewill in Literature and Life
• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1805397044
• ISBN 13: 9781805397045
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.79 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

The relationship between literature and life can be construed as a counterpoint of fate and freewill. Rather than equating fate to the ‘hand we are dealt’ which is reducible to the social or familial environments into which we are born, this book explores the idea of fate through the books that shape our lives and under whose influence we write. Writing in this sense is seen as beyond its utility of making meaning. It is a way of recovering agency in the face of overwhelming experiences. In juxtaposing factuality and fiction, the author makes a case for a radically empirical approach to human experience.

About the Author

Michael Jackson is Senior Research Fellow in World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of over forty books of poetry, ethnography, fiction and memoir, including The Politics of Storytelling (2002), The Genealogical Imagination (2021), Coincidences (2021) andFriendship (2023)