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The Demon and his Disguises: The Yaksa in Hindu and Buddhist Art and Literature |
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| Author |
Sutherland, Gail Hinich
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| Date | 1988 |
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| Publisher | The University of Chicago |
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| Publisher Url |
http://www.uchicago.edu/
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| Location | Chicago, IL, US [芝加哥, 伊利諾伊州, 美國] |
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| Content type | 博碩士論文=Thesis and Dissertation |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Degree | doctor |
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| Institution | University of Chicago |
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| Department | Divinity School |
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| Publication year | 1988 |
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| Keyword | 佛教人物=Buddhist; 佛教藝術=Buddhist Art |
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| Abstract | In this study, "I propose to examine how large cultural symbols and expressions such as the yaksa encompass and articulate wide fluctuations in application, intent, formulations, and stylization. In pursuit of these ideas, I intend to ask two questions: (1) What are the factors, contexts, and contingencies that shape the metamorphosis of a symbol? In this consideration, I . . . use as my point of departure Paul Ricouer's delineation of the three strata of symbols: hierophanic or cosmic, oneiric or psychic, and poetic. The yaksa and related mythical beings are an occasion for the exploration of these three strata of symbols, their interrelationship and the way in which they expand, delimit, and define one another. . . . I intend to look at these dimensions precisely as constitutive of the symbol and also at their interaction as being responsible for the dynamics of change in the expression of the symbol."
The other question (2) which I . . . address in this dissertation is: To what extent is it necessary or even possible to resolve ethical, rational, emotional, and aesthetic paradoxes in order to develop and sustain a consistent notion of the demonic? Or put otherwise, at what stage or level of formulation of categories of the demonic do such considerations of paradox become relevant or compelling? In employing the figure of the yaksa, I hope to examine the ways in which these questions are answered in Hindu versus Buddhist contexts, and in the process, to examine more general issues of the employment of rationality, justification, and classification in the proliferation of normative religious symbols and myths. I . . . [am] particularly concerned with the interpenetration which continually produces a new rationality and integration, a new solidity and substance out of the old ground of opposition and paradox."
The dissertation is divided into five parts, examining: (1) "the iconographic origins of the yaksa and . . . his complex associations with other, related figures and symbols in the visual art and in the literature"; (2) "the yaksa in religious and philosophical context by citing particular textual passages in which he is featured, drawn from successive historical stages of religious development in India, inclusive of Hindu and Buddhist representations"; (3) "the vital place of yaksas within the Buddhist and Jain traditions"; (4) "the prevalent examples of female yaksas (yaksis) and the other related demonic figures in Indian and Asian mythology"; and (5) "special examples and modalities of demonic representation in India, in the attempt to formulate some questions and conclusions about the manifold functions and transformation of the demonic in a society. |
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| Hits | 356 |
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| Created date | 2008.04.29 |
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| Modified date | 2016.02.03 |
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