Post-secular spirituality in Ulitskaja’s Daniel Stein, Interpreter
Keywords:
Ljudmila Ulitskaja, kirjallisuus, henkisyys, Daniel Stein -romaaniAbstract
The article discusses Ljudmila Ulitskaja’s novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter, about a Polish Jew who concealed his Jewish identity and acted as an interpreter for the German police during World War II. Later he converted to Christianity and founded a Judeo-Christian community in Israel. The novel is approached through the perspective of the so-called post-secular turn. The recent discussion on post-secularism deals with the relations between modern secular societies and the somewhat paradoxical role of religion and spirituality in them. The novel’s narrative, based on the principle of heteroglossia, represents a multiplicity of voices and perspectives; of different ideologies, religious beliefs and convictions. The novel’s narrative composition enables the representation of the experiences of spirituality as predominantly subjective, emphasising their connection to everyday life and corporeality. The article shows how the novel also gives voice to women’s religious agency, as well as to the plurality of religious and spiritual experiences in the context of post-Soviet Russia.
