earticle

영어

This paper focuses on the delicate relation between violence and Christianity represented in Louise Erdrich’s first novel Love Medicine. Although Erdrich often uses such Christian concepts as Easter, the convent, Catholic sisters and the saint, spreading violence over them, critics have hardly attempted to analyze them. That Erdrich constantly undermines and satirizes what is said in her text may have caused critics to avert from wrestling with controversial issues. Rene Girard in Violence and the Sacred explains that many scholars try not to tackle the religious elements while acknowledging their significance, for they do not want to encounter uncomfortable moments for the incomprehensible connection among Jewish justice, Christian mercy, original sin, redemption and rebirth. Girard’s theory that violence is the heart and soul of religion, which sanctifies violence imposed upon sacrificial offerings and thus helps the community stay in peace afresh illumines Erdrich’s intricate treatment of violence and Christianity in Love Medicine. The concrete examination of the Catholic convent, Sister Leopolda and the saint in the second chapter “Saint Mary” will show that Erdrich satirizes major Christian concepts to cleanse the latent anxiety, conflict, anger and guilt for the violence exercised under the Christian flag in American past.