Beyond the Story : American literary fiction and the limits of materialism / Christina Bieber Lake.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lake, Christina Bieber, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 198 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, 2019.

Summary:

Beyond the Story: American Literary Fiction and the Limits of Materialism argues that theology is crucial to understanding the power of contemporary American stories. By drawing on the theories of M. M. Bakhtin, Christian personalism, and contemporary phenomenology, Lake argues that literary fiction activates an irreducibly personal intersubjectivity between author, reader, and characters. Stories depend on a dignity-granting valuation of the particular lives of ordinary people, which is best described as an act of love that mirrors the love of the divine. Through original readings of the fiction of Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, Toni Morrison, and others, Lake enters into a dialogue with postsecular theory and cognitive literary studies to reveal the limits of sociobiology's approach to culture. The result is a book that will remind readers how storytelling continually reaffirms the transcendent value of human beings in an inherently personal cosmos. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of theology and literary studies, as well as a broad audience of readers seeking to engage on a deeper level with contemporary literature.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title page

Copyright

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE Beyond the Author

CHAPTER TWO Beyond the Self

CHAPTER THREE Beyond the Brain

CHAPTER FOUR Beyond Evolution

CHAPTER FIVE Beyond the Postsecular

CHAPTER SIX Beyond Beauty

CHAPTER SEVEN Beyond the Visible

Notes

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes indexes.

ISBN:

9780268106270

0268106274