Description
Book SynopsisRhetorics of Religion in American Fiction considers the way in which contemporary American authors address the subject of belief in the post-9/11 Age of Terror. Naydan suggests that after 9/11, fiction by Mohsin Hamid, Laila Halaby, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, John Updike, and Barbara Kingsolver dramatizes and works to resolve impasses that exist between believers of different kinds at the extremes. These impasses emerge out of the religious paradox that shapes America as simultaneously theocratic and secular, and they exist, for instance, between liberals and fundamentalists, between liberals and certain evangelicals, between fundamentalists and artists, and between fundamentalists of different varieties. Ultimately, Naydan argues that these authors function as literary theologians of sorts and forge a relevant space beyond or between extremes. They fashion faith or lack thereof as hybridized and hence as a negotiation among secularism, atheism, faith, fundamentalism, and fanaticism. In so doing, they invite their readers into contemplations of religious difference and new ways of memorializing 9/11.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Paradox of Religion in America and American Literature Chapter 1: Uncertain Faith for Islamic Others after 9/11: Capitalist and Religious Fundamentalisms in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Laila Halaby’s Once in a Promised Land Chapter 2: Beyond Religious, Atheistic, and Capitalist Fundamentalisms for Post-9/11 Jewish Others: The Rhetoric of Art in Philip Roth’s Everyman and Exit Ghost Chapter 3: Toward a Post-9/11 Rhetoric of Catholic Mystery: Terror and Fundamentalism in Don DeLillo’s “Baader-Meinhof” and Point Omega Chapter 4: Emergent Varieties of Religious Experience from a Protestant Perspective: Fundamentalist, Fanatical, and Hybrid Faith in John Updike’s “Varieties of Religious Experience” and Terrorist Chapter 5: Between Protestantism and Pantheism: Post-9/11 Rhetorics of Nature, Science, and Religion in Barbara Kingsolver’s Small Wonder and Flight Behavior Conclusion: Memorializing 9/11 through Interfaith Dialogue with and about American Fiction about Religion Bibliography Index About the Author
