Saints and Fools

Catalog description

An introduction to literature about the lives of saints and the holy fool tradition in major texts of Russian and English literature. Emphasis is placed on the ways authors have used fundamental religious values of humility, the transcendent irrational, and kenosis to confront their own times. Authors considered range from monks to Dickens, Dumas, Chaucer, Gogol, and Pushkin; films include Murder in the Cathedral and Forrest Gump.