A minor apocalypse? The apocalyptic in Charles Williams’s Shadows of Ecstasy

Abstract

The study examines Shadows of Ecstasy (1933), the earliest novel of Charles Williams (1886-1945)—British poet, playwright, theological writer, literary critic, bibliographer, and author of seven works of fiction—in the context of the apocalyptic as discussed by Barry Brummett (1991), Douglas Robinson (1998), and other scholars. Based on the characteristics presented by Brummet, Andrzej Sławomir Kowalczyk traces apocalyptic motifs in the novel, drawing attention to both its socio-political and religious/spiritual aspects. Kowalczyk comes to the conclusion that despite some evident allusions to the biblical apocalyptic, Williams’s text is more ambiguous than its biblical hypotext in terms of its ideological/moral significance, raising a number of open-ended questions. This, in turn, extends its apocalyptic “revelation” onto the reader, who is invited to rethink her/his perception of Western culture/civilization, making room for some spiritual/metaphysical elements in the materialistic outlook predominant in the 20^th century.