Extra Causers: Their Construction of Conflict between Religion and Science in Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, and Their Pedagogical Values

Abstract

This study investigates extra causers, their types, and their voices in the novel Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. The study also attempts to find the function of extra causers in constructing the mystery of a conflict between religion and science throughout stages of the novel. The research is conducted using a descriptive qualitative method with a qualitative analysis, derived from a combination of Miles and Huberman’s and Spradley’s qualitative analysis: domain, taxonomic, componential analyses and finding cultural values. Results show that there are four different types of extra causers, providing the extra causers construction and stages in the novel of 412 tokens, with and without prime agents and both in the active and passive voice. Tokens of the extra causer construction are initiator (126), inducer (89), attributor (131), and assigner (66).  In addition, frequency of stages in the novel is orientation (19), complication (306), evaluation (42), and resolution (45). The results indicate that extra causers contribute to the development of mystery of conflict between religion and science throughout the novel’s stages. The results also reflect that when modeling a text like a detective novel to students, extra causers will also be delicately introduced in orientation, complication, evaluation, and resolution. Pedagogically, the staging in the novel and the way the stages construct conflicts between values of religion and science, indicate the modeling of the novel in a genre-based model of language teaching that provides the critical insights to social teaching values.