Title: Exploring death and grief : Zen in Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2020, vol. 46, iss. 2, pp. 281-296
Extent
281-296
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2020-2-16
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143219
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This article analyses how Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man (2002) portrays the individual trauma of loss of Alex-Li Tandem, a Chinese-Jewish Englishman, who experiences prolonged grief after the death of his father. More specifically, this article provides an in-depth analysis of grief and argues that it is through Zen Buddhism that Alex eventually accepts death in general and is finally able to participate in Kaddish, a Jewish ritual to remember the deceased. Moving away from previous analysis of the novel's postsecularism and trauma in general, this article focuses on the portrayal of mourning, the interrogation of contemporary approaches to death and bereavement, and the role different spiritual traditions play in Alex’s process of working through.
References
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[35] Zheng, Songyun (2018) Postsecular return of religion: Jewish and Zen elements in Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. Neohelicon 45 (1).
[36] Zimmer, Heinrich (1952) Philosophies of India. London: Routledge.
[2] Batchelor, Stephen (1998) Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening. London: Bloomsbury.
[3] Berástegui-Wood, Jorge (2014) The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith: The Long Way to Heal Trauma. The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies 21 (3), 19–30.
[4] Carpenter, Amber D (2012) Metaphysical Suffering, Metaphysics as Therapy. In: Hinnerman, Nate and Matthew Lewis (eds.) On Suffering: An Inter-disciplinary Dialogue on Narrative and the Meaning of Suffering. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
[5] Collins, Richard (2010) Honoring the Form: Zen Moves in Charles Johnson's Oxherding Tale. Religion and the Arts 14 (1–2), 59–76. | DOI 10.1163/107992610X12592913031829
[6] Dogen, Zenji (2012) Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Boston: Shambhala.
[7] Edwards, Mark (1997) Being present: experiential connections between Zen Buddhist practices and the grieving process. Disability and Rehabilitation 19 (10), 442–451. | DOI 10.3109/09638289709166570
[8] Fields, Rick (1992) How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
[9] Fromm Eric, D.T. Suzuki, and Richard De Martino (2013) Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism. New York: Open Road.
[10] Furman, Andrew (2005) The Jewishness of the Contemporary Gentile Writer: Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. Melus 30 (1), 3–17. | DOI 10.1093/melus/30.1.3
[11] Lundorff Marie, Helle Holmgren, Robert Zachariae, Ingeborg Farver-Vestergaard, and Maja O'Connor (2017) Prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in adult bereavement: A systemic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders 212, 138–149. | DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2017.01.030
[12] Maciejewski Paul K., Andreas Maercker, Paul A. Boelen, and Holly G. Prigerson (2016) 'Prolongued grief disorder' and 'persistent complex bereavement disorder', but not 'complicated grief', are one and the same diagnostic entity: an analysis of the data from the Yale Bereavement Study. World Psychiatry (15), 266–275. | DOI 10.1002/wps.20348
[13] Mączyńska, Magdalena (2009) Toward a Postsecular Literary Criticism: Examining Ritual Gestures in Zadie Smith's 'Autograph Man'. Religion and Literature 41 (3), 73–82.
[14] Meinig, Sigrun (2007) What's more important than a gesture? Jewishness and cultural performativity. In: Stähler, Alex (ed.) Anglophone Jewish Literature. London: Routledge, 65–75.
[15] Purser, Ronald (2019) McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. London: Watkins Media.
[16] Reps, Paul and Nyogen Senzaki (1971) Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
[17] Riemer, Jack (1995) Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning. New York: Schocken Books.
[18] Rommeluère, Éric (2015) S'Asseoir Tout Simplement: L'Art de la Méditation Zen. Paris: Seuil.
[19] Schumacher, Stephan and Gert Woerner (eds.) (1989) The Rider Encyclopaedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion. London: Rider.
[20] Siderits, Mark (2007) Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction. Aldershot: Ashgate.
[21] Skelton, John (2003) Death and Dying in Literature. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 9, 211–220.
[22] Smith, Zadie (2000) White Teeth. London: Penguin.
[23] Smith, Zadie (2002) The Autograph Man. London: Penguin.
[24] Smith, Zadie (2003) Martha, Martha. In: Smith, Zadie Martha and Hanwell. London: Penguin, 1–24.
[25] Smith, Zadie (2005) On Beauty. London: Penguin.
[26] Smith, Zadie (2012) NW. London: Penguin.
[27] Smith, Zadie (2013) Man vs. Corpse. The New York Review of Books, December 5, 2013.
[28] Smith, Zadie (2016) Swing Time. London: Penguin.
[29] Suzuki, D.T. and William Barret (1996) Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki. New York: Doubleday.
[30] Terentowicz-Fotyga, Urszula (2008) The Impossible Self and the Poetics of the Urban Hyperreal in Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. In: Walters, Tracey L. (ed.) Zadie Smith: Critical Essays, 57–72.
[31] Tew, Philip (2010) Zadie Smith. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[32] Tew, Philip (2013) Celebrity, Suburban Identity and Transatlantic Epiphanies. In Tew, Philip (ed.) Reading Zadie Smith: The First Decade and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 53–68.
[33] Wood, James (2002) Fundamentally Goyish. London Review of Books 24 (19), 17–18.
[34] Woodward, Kathleen. 1990. Freud and Barthes: Theorizing Mourning, Sustaining Grief. Discourse 13 (1), 93–110.
[35] Zheng, Songyun (2018) Postsecular return of religion: Jewish and Zen elements in Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. Neohelicon 45 (1).
[36] Zimmer, Heinrich (1952) Philosophies of India. London: Routledge.