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ABSTRACT
Annie Dillard, born in 1945, is one of the leading American environmentalist writers. She is best known for her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek which she published in 1974, winning the 1975 Pulitzer Prize. The present article studies Annie Dillard mysticism which seems to a great extent non-traditional one. Dillard's mystic vision is investigated in two of her major works, Pilgrim at Tinker Creekand Teaching a stone to talk(1982).Dillardexposes the possibility of using the scientific method as a legitimate path along with the mystic way. Annie Dillard seems to provide us hope of connecting with the divine in this material age.
Keywords: mysticism, vision, transcendental, meditation
In her book titled Annie Dillard, Linda L Smith's writes that Pilgrim at Tinker Creek "appears to be a book about the natural world" but "in reality it is about God and his relationship to man" (Smith, 1991, p.16). In my view, what characterizes Annie Dillard's writing about her surroundings in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the continuous vacillation between her detailed, fresh depiction of the natural world and her speculative and mystical inclinations. This vacillation between material and spiritual vision is what establishes a close affinity between her works andnineteenthcentury American Transcendentalism.
Dillard's mystical vision can be shown in chapter two of her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, a meditation on "seeing. Seeing is a matter of verbalization to a great extent", says Dillard. Verbalization can call the seen object into attention which,therefore, can be seen. Otherwise, it would remain unseen, "Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes I simply won't see it" (Dillard,2009, p. 40). Dillard thinks that the secret of seeing is "a pearl of great price" (Dillard,2009,p. 43) and feels she is ready if only she could find someone to teach her the art of doing so, to go through deserts in a quest for knowing. Dillard looks for amystical, spiritual vision through which she can see the light. She speaks of two kinds of "seeing," literal and figurative. I focus on "figurative seeing'which is more complicated than the literal. This "seeing' requires us to look with inner eyes and go beyond outward appearances to see what is...