'Which Story do you Prefer?': The Limits of the Symbolic in Yann Martel's Life of Pi. (29th January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Karam Ally, Hamza
• Is Part Of: Literature and theology. Volume 34:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 100
• Publication Date: 2020-01-29
• Subjects: Yann Martel -- The Life of Pi -- Herman Melville -- Moby-Dick -- Psychoanalysis -- Animal Symbolism; Religion and literature -- Periodicals; Religion and literature; Periodicals; 809.9338205
• DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frz048
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-1205

Abstract

Abstract: This article investigates the symbolic and the material in Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi . I develop through psychoanalytical and phenomenological argumentation a reading of Martel's book as an updating of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, in the sense that each tempts its protagonist to try to glimpse the presence of the divine within the indifferent mutability of animal natures. Like Ishmael, who alternatively perceives Ahab as Jonah and Job, Martel's castaway Piscine asks us to choose which 'story' about the universe we prefer, one in which nature is a window into God's mind, and the other in which it refuses us this desire.