Two Stigmatas in Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy

Abstract: Criticism on Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy has, with little hesitation and only one exception, readily accepted the veracity of Mariette's stigmata. Hansen, however, claims to have written the novel to support both belief and unbelief. Employing psychoanalytic and Foucauldian principles, this article demonstrates the subtle ways with which Hansen consistently provides alternative naturalistic explanation when depicting the supernatural. It argues that Hansen sows seeds of ambiguity not to produce doubt, but to offer a unique theological hermeneutics: he positions his text, as well as Mariette, as a stigmatic—willingly accepting the wounds of suspicious reading to create a more grace-infused sacramental text.