LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 4 April 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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Theoretical Perspective of Dan Brown's
The Da Vinci Code

M. John Britto, M. A., M. Phil.

Da Vinci cover page

Introduction

There is a close relationship between society, culture and religion, which mutually influence each other. A person's religious experience (the experience of the Divine) helps him or her to become a socially and culturally righteous person. Similarly, the social and cultural practices of a person affect his or her religious faith and the practices associated with it. This kind of influences is perceivable in literature too.

A literary text with social, cultural and religious traces tends to affect the reader's outlook on society, culture, religion and the belief-systems. In this regard, literary theory plays a pivotal role in the interpretation of a literary text, and in enlightening the readers to have a better comprehension of the text. Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, abounds in controversies which have challenged the divinity of Christ and thus the Christians' socio-cultural beliefs that include faith in Christ.

Dan Brown, in his attempt to fuse the elements of history and fiction together in The Da Vinci Code, distorts certain religious facts and beliefs that are embedded in the Holy Bible. This distortion has, in fact, wounded hearts of numerous staunch believers who have experienced Christ as God in their personal lives. In this regard, the novel, The Da Vinci Code, is an eye-opener to the fact that one should be very cautious while blending fiction with reality in a work of art. Creative imagination should proceed without hurting the religious sentiments of people which may affect their socio-cultural beliefs and practices.

Protest against The Da Vinci Code

Ever since the movie version of Dan Brown's controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code, was released, a storm of protest battered mildly in the West, and fiercely in the countries like India against the screening of the film. The rationale behind the protest is the controversial scenes which allege that Jesus, the centre of Christian faith, was very much like a mortal and got married to Mary Magdalene, begetting a daughter.

The controversies presented in the novel can be looked at from a theoretical perspective.

This paper is an attempt to analyze the novel in the light of a few elements of literary theories like Postmodernism, New Historicism and Deconstruction. It also seeks to provide a solution to the controversies with the method of the Hegelian dialectic.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

M. John Britto, M. A., M. Phil.
Assistant Professor of English
St. Joseph's College (Autonomous)
Tiruchirappalli-620002
Tamil Nadu, India
jbritto865@gmail.com

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