The Laughter at the Heart of Things: Selected Essays - Hardcover

Luke, Helen M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0930407520 ISBN 13: 9780930407520

Publisher: Parabola Books, 2001

Synopsis

These essays explore the nature of feminine and masculine psychology and the role of story and myth in human culture, and offer insight into the spiritual meaning within modern and classical literature. Several previously unpublished essays are collected here — including an analysis of two of Shakespeare's greatest plays, "The Merchant of Venice" and "Antony and Cleopatra." The title essay reflects on the vital importance of a sense of humor on the spiritual road to freedom and joy. Laughter at the Heart of Things combines Christian spirituality with Jungian psychology to discuss the importance of openly and consciously facing the suffering that is part of being human.

About this title

About the Author:

Helen M. Luke is known for her impact in the fields of women's psychology and contemporary Christian ethics. Her writings include Old Age, Dark Wood to White Rose, and Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On. She died in 1995.

From Publishers Weekly:

Luke's (1904-1995) Jungian outlook permeates this posthumous collection of essays, which seek to explain the world and life in archetypal terms, mainly through literary works. For example, we learn that the "shadow" archetype is variously represented by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, by Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, and by Alberich the dwarf in Wagner's Ring cycle. In these and a few other works, she meticulously picks out which characters represent ego, anima and so forth, and then retells the plots, showing how the archetypes come to life and play off each other. Luke's style is clear, personable and consistent: in fact, if anything, the worldview she presents is coherent to a fault. Those not sympathetic to the Jungian outlook will note that her approach reduces great works of art to nothing more than the formulaic ramblings of the collective unconscious. For this kind of reductive exercise, they might further object, readers hardly need a guide especially one whose claims to authority can be tenuous and strange: "I have had considerable experience with the messages that come to us through dreams." Luke (Old Age: Journey into Simplicity) waxes philosophical with this and similar observations, delivered as if from a very great distance, in the concluding part of the book (entitled "Musings"). Luke's humaneness is evident throughout, despite the book's relatively narrow mission. Readers who yearn for a world made orderly by myth will discover what they seek here, although what they find is unlikely to surprise them.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Parabola Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0930407520
• ISBN 13: 9780930407520
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128