Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | ‘‘The Waters of Separation’’: Myth and Ritual in Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
In the following essay, Jim Cheney analyzes Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as a feminist postmodern work, asserting that Dillard’s approach ‘‘effects a transformation of the dominant Western theological tradition.’’
Postmodernism and the Sacred
I used to have a cat, an old fighting tom, who would jump through the open window by my bed in the middle of the night and land on my chest. I’d halfawakened. He’d stick his skull under my nose and purr, stinking of urine and blood. Some nights he kneaded my bare chest with his front paws, powerfully, arching his back, as if sharpening his claws, or pummeling a mother for milk. And some mornings I’d wake in daylight to find my body covered with paw prints in blood; I looked as though I’d been painted with...
[The entire page is 9496 words long]
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