Editing Epiphany (feeling) (section)

==History==
The word ''epiphany'' originally referred to insight through the [[divinity|divine]].<ref name="Berkun2010-5"/><ref>Platt, V. J. (2011) ''Facing the Gods. Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion''. Cambridge University Press''. ''</ref> Today, this concept is more often used without such connotations, but a popular implication remains that the epiphany is [[supernatural]], as the discovery seems to come suddenly from the outside.<ref name="Berkun2010-5"/>

The word's secular usage may owe much of its popularity to Irish novelist [[James Joyce]]. The Joycean epiphany has been defined as "a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether from some object, scene, event, or memorable phase of the mind{{snd}}the manifestation being out of proportion to the significance or strictly logical relevance of whatever produces it".<ref>Morris Beja, ''Epiphany in the Modern Novel''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1971. P. 18.</ref> The author used epiphany as a literary device within each entry of his short story collection ''[[Dubliners]]'' (1914); his [[protagonist]]s came to sudden recognitions that changed their view of themselves and/or their social conditions. Joyce had first expounded on epiphany's meaning in the fragment ''[[Stephen Hero]]'' (published posthumously in 1944). For the philosopher [[Emmanuel Lévinas]], epiphany or a manifestation of the divine is seen in another's face (see [[Face-to-face (philosophy)|face-to-face]]).
[[File:Flammarion.jpg|thumb|right|[[Flammarion engraving]]. From "L'atmosphère", book of 1888.]]

In traditional and pre-modern cultures, [[initiation]] rites and [[western esotericism|mystery religion]]s have served as vehicles of epiphany, as well as the arts. The [[Greek drama]]tists and [[Greek poetry|poets]] would, in the ideal, induct the audience into states of ''[[catharsis]]'' or ''[[kenosis]]'', respectively. In modern times an epiphany lies behind the title of [[William Burroughs]]' ''[[Naked Lunch]]'', a drug-influenced state, as Burroughs explained, "a frozen moment when everyone sees what is at the end of the fork." Both the [[Dadaist]] [[Marcel Duchamp]] and the [[Pop Art]]ist [[Andy Warhol]] would invert expectations by presenting commonplace objects or graphics as works of [[fine art]] (for example a [[Fountain (Duchamp)|urinal as a fountain]]), simply by presenting them in a way no one had thought to do before; the result was intended to induce an epiphany of "what art is" or is not.