Liberating Form: Mormon Essays on Religion and Literature

by Marden J. Clark

Book by Clark, Marden J

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays divided into three sections for me: The first third, with the titled essay "Liberating Form" leading off, focuses not so much on that intriguing subject, as on a criticism of tendendcy of literature of "Mormon Culture"--I use the term advisedly--to not measuing up to the extraordinary features of the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, opting all too often for the didactic or sentimental, the more readily marketable, rather than the momumental and more demanding. That is an old argument and while other religious sects have wrestled with that same problem, Catholicism has produced Flannery O'Connor and Anglicism T.S. Elliot, Mormonism has yet to produce great literature, or in the case of Juanita Brooks or Virginia Sorenson, 'drummed them out of the corps" rather than appreciated them. Fair point. The middle third seemed to fall into the trap of literary criticism for literary critics, and only tangently colored by LDS culture, which leaves the readers who are not of that brotherhood, yawning and slogging through arguments without a dog in the fight. In the final essays, Clark hits his stride provides the reader with graspable tools without slackening the demand for discipline and focus for engaging art with deserved and serious purpose, and those deserve being named along with his flagship work, "Liberating Form", "Toward A More Perfect Order Within", The Virtue of Virtue: A Sermon", and "In The Midst of Miracle--So What?" It was a challenging collection, which I might have missed had I not been snagged by that title 30 years ago, or the man 55 years ago when I encountered him as a student at BYU where he taught in the English Department. Finally worth the slog.

[Darlene Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great essays from a BYU English professor. I loved the commentary on BYU intellectual environment, the passion for learning and intellectual honesty. A great read.