Religion without Belief , livre ebook

212

pages

English

Ebooks

2008

Écrit par
Jeanne Ellen Petrolle

Publié par
State University of New York Press

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212

pages

English

Ebooks

2008

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

05 juin 2008

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791479346

Langue

English

In our present cultural moment, when God is supposed to be dead and metaphysical speculation unfashionable, why does postmodern fiction—in a variety of genres—make such frequent use of the ancient rhetorical form of allegory? In Religion without Belief, Jean Ellen Petrolle argues that contrary to popular understandings of postmodernism as an irreligious and amoral climate, postmodern allegory remains deeply engaged in the quest for religious insight. Examining a range of films and novels, this book shows that postmodern fiction, despite its posturing about the unverifiable nature of truth and reality, routinely offers theological and cosmological speculation. Works considered include virtual-reality films such as The Matrix and The Truman Show, avant-garde films, and Amerindian and feminist novels.
Acknowledgments

1. Rethinking Postmodernism

2. Rescuing the Real, Part I: Allegory, Body, and Humanness in the Virtual Reality Film

3. Rescuing the Real, Part II: Allegory, Deconstruction, and Negative Theology in Feminist Experimental Novels

4. Confronting Suffering, Part I: Allegory, Interpretation, and Quests for Deliverance in Avant-Garde Film

5. Confronting Suffering, Part II: Allegory, Magic, and History in the Amerindian Novel

6. Cause or Cure? Postmodernism and Religious Fundamentalism

Notes
Works Cited
Index

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Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

05 juin 2008

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791479346

Langue

English

History of film Literary theory

Religion without Belief Contemporary Allegory and the Search for Postmodern Faith

JEAN ELLEN PETROLLE

Religion without Belief

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Religion without Belief

Contemporary Allegory and the Search for Postmodern Faith

Jean Ellen Petrolle

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Petrolle, Jean. Religion without belief : contemporary allegory and the search for postmodern faith / Jean Ellen Petrolle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-7241-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Religion and literature. 2. Motion pictures—Religious aspects. I. Title.

PN49.P4187 2007 809'.93382—dc22

2006100231

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Chapter 2.

Chapter 3.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 6.

Notes Works Cited Index

Contents

Rethinking Postmodernism

Rescuing the Real, Part I: Allegory, Body, and Humanness in theVirtual Reality Film

Rescuing the Real, Part II: Allegory, Deconstruction, and Negative Theology in Feminist Experimental Novels

Confronting Suffering, Part I: Allegory, Interpretation, and Quests for Deliverance in AvantGarde Film

Confronting Suffering, Part II: Allegory, Magic, and History in the Amerindian Novel

Cause or Cure? Postmodernism and Religious Fundamentalism

vii

129

155

167 173 193

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Madhu Dubey, Jerry Graff, Eric Levy, Joe Tabbi, Tony Trigilio, and Virginia Wexman for reading early versions of this book and offering useful criticism. Rose Blouin, Ana Croegaert, Ken Daley, Garnett Kilberg Cohen, Bob Miklitsch, Sarah Odishoo, Sharon Silverman, and Dorothy Trippel also provided valuable support at critical junctures in the development of the book. My family has made it possible for this project to come to fruition. June and Angelo Petrolle, Eric Levy, and Evan Petrolle have all graciously and cheerfully rearranged their lives on occasion, so that I could have time to write. I deeply appreciate their sup-port of my writing. Jason, Jeffrey, and Candy Petrolle provide a steady backdrop of support and friendship that encourages me and sustains my sense of humor. Don and Sherry Levy, whose interest in my scholarship encourages me, helped me track down a last bibliographic detail. I am also grateful to Peter Greenaway, Nina Menkes, and Yvonne Rainer for their intellectual hospitality. Not all artists enjoy having their work analyzed: these three filmmakers have, at various moments, been exceedingly generous in their attention to my ideas about their work. And I could hardly be more thankful to the novelists and theorists whose work has chal-lenged me to think through my own deepest commitments.

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Rethinking Postmodernism

UST ASPOST-BECAME AN OMNIPRESENTprefix for describing cultural phenomena J from the sixties onward, a survey of critical theory titles from the last fifteen years demonstrates that the prefixre-has emerged as a favored option for de-scribing intellectual projects of the late twentieth century. With titles likeWhat Happens to History: The Renewal of Ethics in Continental Thought(2001),Re-trieving Experience(2001),Reclaiming Identity: Realist Theory and the Predica-ment of Postmodernism(2000),Redeeming Art: Critical Reveries(2000), Constructive Postmodernism: Toward Renewal in Cultural and Literary Studies (1999),The Rebirth of Value: Meditations on Beauty, Ecology, Religion, and Ed-ucation(1991),States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age (1991), andThe Resurgence of the Real(1997), scholars from various disciplines are positing are-in answer to thepost-in postmodernism. Something about the postness of earlier postmodernist texts and theory, apparently, makes this re-inevitable or desirable for many writers. The discursive acts of redemption, renewal, recovery, retrieval, and reclamation heralded in recent discussions of postmodernism indicate a frustration, disappointment, or fatigue with the direction in which studies of postmodernity have gone, coupled with a deter-mination to change that direction. The imagined losses and lapses necessitating so much redemptive activity arise perhaps from a sense of exhaustion with reading practices that emphasize textual indeterminacy and self-contradiction while leaving unexplored specific value claims made by texts. The problem with such reading protocols is that they tend to produce the same observations— reality is mediated by language and representation, the mediating function of language and representation make reality difficult or impossible to know, language ultimately refers to other language, and textual meaning is fragile, unstable, or self-contradictory. This set of insights, having been iterated suffi-ciently, leads some to that sense of exhaustion, frustration, or boredom that

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