Profane Illumination, Genre, and the Integrative Study of Literature

Abstract

In addition to questioning and crossing disciplinary boundaries, Integrative Studies scholars need to question and cross genre boundaries, reaching toward innovation in presentation as well as methodology. Scholarship, like creative writing, often grows out of a personal quest for knowledge and meaning; yet the two paths of inquiry often diverge rather than take advantage of the full spectrum of approaches that include narrative, speculation, and personal voice and the more widely accepted strategies of analysis and experimentation. The arguments for integration are worth exploring at greater depth. A consideration of Walter Benjamin's insights into the nature of thinking and Carl Jung's work on synchronicity can lead integrative scholars to imagine intellectual directions and prose forms that integrate the personal with the analytical and the critical with the creative without sacrificing creativity or scholarly rigor.