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Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature
The Material Sacred
Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature
The Material Sacred
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Description
What does it feel like to experience the sacred today? Examining in detail many of this century's most significant writers, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth Strout, Marilynne Robinson, Mohsin Hamid, Michael Chabon, Howard Jacobson and Don DeLillo, Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred argues that contemporary social and cultural forms, most especially those of 21st century literature, are marked by what Emily McAvan calls a material sacred.
Placing Christian, Jewish and Muslim writers in conversation with the new materialisms, this book shows how secular and sacred mix unpredictably in contemporary writing. In this important contribution to the understanding of religion, materialism and literature, McAvan maps new territory, arguing that the material sacred shows us that the human and non-human, the divine and the profane, have been interwoven from the start.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction to 21st Century Postsecular Fiction
Section One – God and the Postsecular
Chapter 2. Strout and the Idea of God
Chapter 3. Robinson and Immanent Faith
Chapter 4. Chabon and the Messianic after the Death of God
Section Two – Hospitality and the Postsecular
Chapter 4. Rushdie and Religious Terror
Chapter 5. Hamid and Interreligious Hospitality
Chapter 6. Jacobson and Antisemitism in the Multicultural State
Section Three – The Postsecular and the Non-Human
Chapter 7. DeLillo's Posthuman Faith
Chapter 8. Atwood's Ecotheology
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Product details

Published | 17 Oct 2024 |
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Format | Ebook (PDF) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 224 |
ISBN | 9781350280380 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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McAven's stunning readings of the “material sacred” within contemporary novels reveals 21st-century-fiction's preoccupation with a world imbued with divine resonance. Postsecular Fiction importantly expands our understanding of vital issues such as forgiveness, disbelief, hospitality, and trauma as it unearths these novelists' explorations of humanity's vital relationship with the world.
Jo Carruthers, Lancaster University, UK

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