“And You Just Happened to Find Me”: The Turn to the Transcencent Relational in Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut

This article explores the concept of the transcendent relational through the analysis of the encounter between the two main characters of Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut. The transcendent relational names a new understanding of transcendence characteristic of transmodernity, the sociocultural paradigm that has succeeded postmodernity. It draws on the synergies between caring individualism and immanent transcendence, both distinctive features of transmodern times (Rodríguez Magda). The study of Winton’s novel proves that relationality of a higher order is needed for the experience of the dimension of reality that goes beyond the strictly human and the material. It is also symptomatic of a growing interest in transcendence that does not rule out institutionalized religion but, most characteristically, implies an intimate search outside creeds and dogmas.