While writers and film-makers dislike being labelled, those from a Catholic background tend to draw on their life experience in their work. Here, a critic asks if there is such a thing as a ‘Catholic imagination’
Suggesting a link between religious upbringing and creativity is tempting to critics but upsetting to artists. Graham Greene adopted from François Mauriac a formulation about preferring to be known not as a “Catholic novelist”, a standard academic and journalistic convenience, but as a “novelist who happened to be a Catholic”. Subsequently, two American writers – the novelist Philip Roth and the playwright-screenwriter Neil LaBute – used a version of those words to refuse identification respectively as a “Jewish
28 May 2015, The Tablet
Creativity’s roads that lead from Rome
Get Instant Access
Continue Reading
Register for free to read this article in full
Subscribe for unlimited access
From just £30 quarterly
Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
The full weekly edition in print and digital including our 179 years archive.
PDF version to view on iPad, iPhone or computer.
Already a subscriber? Login