Experiencing Epiphanies in Literature and Cinema uses health humanities and psychological humanities to explore literary and cinematic epiphanies. James Joyce first adopted the term "e;epiphany"e; from its religious use to articulate momentsof luminous intensity or "e;sudden spiritual manifestation."e; This study develops and extends Joyce's use of epiphany through a range of literary and cinematic examples, from William Shakespeare to Ruth Ozeki and from Yasujiro Ozu to Jim Jarmusch. This wealth of epiphanies in the arts is important from a health humanities perspective in that they provide access to aesthetic and sustainable experiences of well-being, joy, and human flowering. They also provide antidotes to aesthetics of anti-epiphany-a showing forth of terror, horror, and panic. Experiencing Epiphanies is accordingly both critical and affirmative, diagnostic and therapeutic. It uses critique to understand the increasing need for well-being in contemporary times, and it uses affirmation to develop underutilized resources in the arts for transforming, configuring, and refiguring our everyday lives.
