Literary Criticism
Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
Figures of Heresy
Radical Theology in English and American Writing, 1800–2000
Author Text to Follow
‘God is dead’, Nietzsche famously
declared in The Gay Science; but this book will investigate
God’s surprising persistence and resurrection in the works
of even the most seemingly atheistic of writers, who continue to
deploy Judaic and Christian narratives and tropes even as they radically
rewrite them in the face of new cultural, political and scientific
imperatives.
Contributors explore the range, power and implication of
Christian and Jewish heresies in canonical Anglo-American writers
– including Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson,
T. S. Eliot, John Steinbeck and Jim Crace – as well as in
some less familiar texts: the Mormon Scriptures of Joseph Smith
and various Victorian rewritings of the Book of Esther. A polemical
essay by Michelene Wandor reflects on conceptions of Jewishness,
which she finds in need of heretical renewal. Valentine Cunningham’s
provocative introduction argues that the acts of literary writing
and reading are necessarily heretical.
A coda to the book, ‘Between Heresy and Superstition’,
takes as its motto Thomas Huxley’s observation in 1881 that
‘It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies
and to end as superstitions.’ Contributions offer readers
a rare opportunity of witnessing an extended academic exchange –
exploring the process by which former heresies may indeed risk ossification
as new kinds of doctrinal conformity. In debating the politics and
theology of Bob Dylan’s “Christian Albums”, Bryan
Cheyette and Kevin Mills also raise important questions of orthodoxy and dissent in our critical practice. The
revitalisation of heresy in literary interpretations, as well as
in our religious thinking, forms the guiding objective of this exciting
critical book.
| Hardback ISBN: | 978-1-84519-026-2 |
| Hardback Price: | £47.50 / $67.50 |
| Release Date: | November 2005 |
| Page Extent / Format: | 272 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
| Illustrated: | No |
Preface
The Contributors
Introduction:The Necessity of Heresy
Valentine Cunningham
Index
Taking its cue from Valentine Cunningham’s excellent
introductory essay on the necessity of heresy, this volume is far
more than simply a collection of essays around a common theme.
Rather it is a series of interrelated exercises in the study of
literature and theology, recognizing the underlying hermeneutical
issue and problem – that as all reading involves making choices,
therefore all reading is, in a true sense, heretical. Furthermore,
in the wide range of texts addressed – from Joseph Smith’s
Book of Mormon, to the novels of Thomas Hardy, R. L. Stevenson,
John Steinbeck and Jim Crace, the poetry of T. S. Eliot and the
lyrics of Bob Dylan, and more – and in the crossing of boundaries
between the Christian and the Jewish, these essays explore the
issues of openness and closure, of movements from heresy to orthodoxy,
and the way in which the forms of literature can both replicate
and disturb the forms of theological doctrine. It is to be highly
recommended as a serious and innovative contribution to contemporary
debates about theology and literature.
David Jasper, Professor
of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow
A spirited and variegated set of
essays, ranging from Mormon founder John Smith to convert Bob Dylan,
showing convincingly how close heresy and orthodoxy may be in radical
thinkers, as well as how intricately and passionately the literary
imagination tries to reclaim from dogmatic religion what it considers
to be its own domain.
Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Professor
Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, Yale University
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