Hemingway and Agamben : finding religion without God / Marcos Antonio Norris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Norris, Marcos Antonio, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961--Criticism and interpretation.

Hemingway, Ernest.

Agamben, Giorgio, 1942---Criticism and interpretation.

Agamben, Giorgio.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 282 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2023.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Marcos Antonio Norris implements Giorgio Agamben's notion of 'secularized theism' to resolve a critical disagreement among Hemingway scholars who have portrayed the writer as either a Roman Catholic or a secular existentialist. He argues that Hemingway is, properly speaking, neither a secularist nor a theist, but a 'secularised theist', whose 'religion' is practiced through sovereign decision making, which, in its most extreme form, includes the act of killing. This book resolves an important debate in Hemingway studies and uncovers fundamental similarities between theism and atheism, building upon the theoretical undertaking first introduced by 'Agamben and the Existentialists' (EUP, 2021). Bringing Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Paul Sartre and Giorgio Agamben into close conversation, the author reconceptualises existentialism, issues a posthumanist critique of moral authoritarianism and advances an original interpretation of Hemingway as a secularised theist.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

1. Hemingway, Sartre, and the Secular

An Introduction

A Word on Secularization

Hemingway as Religious Believer

Sartre as Religious Believer

Returning to Hemingway

Book Summary

2. Sovereign Decisionism and the Imago Dei

The Failed Atheism of Jean-Paul Sartre

The Biographical Origins of Sartre's Failed Atheism

Agamben and the Creation of Mankind

Looking at Sartre through Agamben's Eyes

Hemingway's Youth as an Oak Park Congregationalist

A Change in Hemingway's Religious Temperament

Hemingway the Existentialist

Hemingway the Catholic

Hemingway the Un/Believer

3. The Problem with Human Exceptionalism

Approaching the Masculine in Hemingway's Fiction

"On the Quai at Smyrna"

Death in the Afternoon

Hemingway's Stance on Animal Equality

4. Hemingway's Masculine Hero

There Are No Happy Endings

On the Use of Ritual

Suicide as Cowardice

The Faena, or Becoming Like God

The Masculine, Existential Hero

Finding Religion Without God

Cause for Question in Hemingway's Posthumous Works

Conclusion: The Death of God, the Death of Man

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Mar 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-3995-1681-7

1-3995-1680-9