Rhetorics of Religion in American Fiction

Liliana M. Naydan is assistant professor of English at Penn State Abington.

This book addresses representations of belief in the polarized post-9/11 Age of Terror. Naydan tracks how both major and less-known contemporary authors of diverse religious heritages negotiate religious and ideological differences that involve secularism and atheism on the one hand and religious fundamentalism and fanaticism on the other.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Paradox of Religion in America and American LiteratureChapter 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 LandChapter 2: Beyond Religious, Atheistic, and Capitalist Fundamentalisms for Post-9/11 Jewish Others: The Rhetoric of Art in Philip Roth¿s Everyman and Exit GhostChapter 3: Toward a Post-9/11 Rhetoric of Catholic Mystery: Terror and Fundamentalism in Don DeLillös ¿Baader-Meinhof¿ and Point OmegaChapter 4: Emergent Varieties of Religious Experience from a Protestant Perspective: Fundamentalist, Fanatical, and Hybrid Faith in John Updike¿s ¿Varieties of Religious Experience¿ and TerroristChapter 5: Between Protestantism and Pantheism: Post-9/11 Rhetorics of Nature, Science, and Religion in Barbara Kingsolver¿s Small Wonder and Flight BehaviorConclusion: Memorializing 9/11 through Interfaith Dialogue with and about American Fiction about ReligionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author