Original Research
Why the fuss over Brown’s The Da Vinci code? The dynamism of 'icons' and the in/stability of meaning
Koers - Bulletin for Christian Scholarship/Bulletin vir Christelike Wetenskap | Vol 74, No 1-2 | a127 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/koers.v74i1/2.127
| © 2009 C. Lombaard
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 26 July 2009 | Published: 26 July 2009
Submitted: 26 July 2009 | Published: 26 July 2009
About the author(s)
C. Lombaard, Department of Christian Spirituality, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South AfricaFull Text:
PDF (126KB)Abstract
Dan Brown’s book, “The Da Vinci code” (2003) and the sub-sequent motion picture by the same title (2006), have created a considerable stir within, but not limited to, Christian circles. The cause of the controversy is that, despite Brown’s overt pre-sentation of this work as fiction, it draws on figures, events and themes regarded in religious circles as sacred – most par-ticularly in Christian circles. Holy figures, events and themes are sensitive matters to believers: the meanings attached to them are regarded as essentially fixed, with connotations of perma-nence and eternity. Literature of many kinds, however, reinter-pret set meanings, loosening their perceived inflexibility, thus opening up a dynamism quite foreign to popular notions of definite meaning.
Keywords
Construction Of Meaning; Icons As Set Meanings; Reinterpretation Of Religion; The Da Vinci Code
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