© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���9 | doi:�0.��63/978900438593�_007 Chapter 6 Shaping Personality through Suffering: The Transformative Writing of Pat MacEnulty Kate Burton Life, believe, is not a dream So dark as sages say; Oft a little morning rain Foretells a pleasant day. Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, But these are transient all; If the shower will make the roses bloom, O why lament its fall? charlotte brontë, ‘Life’1 ∵ Brontë’s quasi-romantic poem written in 1839 when Charlotte was twenty- three provides an apt entry point from which to begin this chapter. ‘Life’ ex- udes a sense of spiritual yearning, of our individual journeys as an unavoidable, yet beautiful, struggle. Pat MacEnulty’s novels and short stories document this paradox. She openly and frequently references her writing as a form of therapy, and keenly acknowledges its transformative potential and spiritual significance: Transformative writing is writing that seeks to connect, understand, and illuminate. Although transformative writing is therapeutic, it’s not just that. Transformative writing strives for a level of artistry that, to borrow from Faulkner, uplifts our souls. Transformative writing may inform, it 1 Charlotte Brontë, ‘Life’ in The Poems of Charlotte Brontë (Currer Bell) (London: Forgotten Books, 2012), 81. Kate Burton - 9789004385931 Downloaded from Brill.com02/19/2022 04:02:59AM via free access