Kevin McIlvoy: Making, Masking, and Unmasking: God in Fiction (January 2007)

How can writers take up the unique challenges of portraying “God” as a figure in their fiction?  In this lecture, Kevin McIlvoy draws on work by Simone Weil and on Tolstoy’s novels, but focuses on Tolstoy’s short story “Master and Man” to examine its distinctly sincere handling of religion.  Arguing that it marks Tolstoy’s development into the kind of artist he himself called “inartistic,” McIlvoy suggests that this story serves as an example of how a writer can pursue innocence or simplicity instead of complication.