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

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)

Product details

• Authors: Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson Jackson
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.10.2024
• EAN: 9781805397045
• ISBN: 978-1-80539-704-5
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); Social Theory, PHILOSOPHY / Free Will & Determinism, Philosophy of Mind, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Social and cultural anthropology