Publication Date
1995
Keywords
Augustine, autobiography
Abstract
Augustine, it seems, ends the Confessions twice: the first time neatly at the conclusion of Book 9; the second, problematically, at the end of Book 13. The first ending is an autobiographical ending, but what of the second? The structural and generic unity of the Confessions is a vexed issue, even though its coherence of theme is increasingly recognized. If the work is unified, is it unified as autobiography? If (as I argue) Augustine had come to find the conversion paradigm of his first ending to be unsatisfactory and had exploded it by adopting a new and dangerous strategy in Book 10, he had now launched himself into a precarious openendedness. He must find a new ending.
Recommended Citation
Tate, George S.
(1995)
"The Rest after the Desert: Ending Confessions,"
Quidditas: Vol. 16, Article 2.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol16/iss1/2
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, Renaissance Studies Commons