Description
Book SynopsisReligious Narratives in Contemporary Culture: Between Cultural Memory and Transmediality analyses the meaning and role of religion in western cultural practices in the twenty-first century. This inquiry situates itself at the intersection between cultural memory studies and the transmedial study of narrative and art. Contributors focus on genres which have yet to receive significant critical attention within the field, including speculative fiction films and television series, autobiographical prose and poetry, and action-adventure video games. In this time of crisis, where traces of religious thinking still persist in the presence or absence of religious faith, this volume’s collective look into some of their cultural embodiments is necessary and timely. The volume is addressed primarily to scholars and students interested in intersections between religious and cultural studies, revisions of traditional religious narratives, literature as a space of reflection on today's world, contemporary media studies and remediation. Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru's editing work in the last stages of this volume was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P3-3.6-H2020-0035.
Table of ContentsList of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru and Dragoș Manea PART 1 Negotiations between the Spiritual and the Secular 1 Going Boldly Where Few Have Gone Before Science, Religion and Life-Writing in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop and Tracy K. Smith Marcel Inhoff 2 Roman Catholic Religion and Folk Religiosity in the Fiction of Contemporary American Writers of Polish Descent An Analysis of Selected Works by Stuart Dybek Sonia Caputa 3 “A Secular Mind Searching for Its Lost Love” Mourning, Religion, and the Return of the Dead in Meghan O’Rourke’s The Long Goodbye Mihaela Precup PART 2 Oppression and Resistance 4 Cultural Memory and Political Resistance through Religious/Spiritual Art in (Post-) Communist Romania Maria-Alina Asavei 5 The Rhetoric of the Body of Christ and the Pitfalls of American Democracy Olga V. Solovieva 6 Evil Nuns and Useless Priests On the Representation of Christianity in Contemporary Historical Fantasy Television Series Dragoș Manea PART 3 Transmedial Religious Narratives in Unreal and Posthuman Worlds 7 Algorithms of Desire Dukkha in the Machine Anthony Miccoli 8 How to Fight Historical Violence Posthuman Spirituality in Cloud Atlas Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru 9 Can Artificial Humans Go to Heaven? Transhumanist Salvation in Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Hitman Series Andrei Nae Conclusion Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru and Dragoș Manea Bibliography Index
