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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
American Exceptionalism as Religion: Postmodern Discontent

American Exceptionalism as Religion: Postmodern Discontent

Carson, Jordan

Hardcover

Series: Literature, Religion, & Postsecular Stud

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0814214436
ISBN13: 9780814214435
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: Aug 14 2020
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.13
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Jordan Carson's American Exceptionalism as Religion looks at how American nationalist ideologies intersect with religious ones in contemporary literature. Carson traces out how an exceptionalist belief system began to emerge historically with a distorted picture of religious commitment. He then connects this trend to writers such as Don DeLillo, Ana Castillo, Thomas Pynchon, George Saunders, and Marilynne Robinson to argue that these authors dismantle the privatization of religion in their writing and then offer their own alternatives. Their work, he argues, redefines religion in terms of practice and discipline, gauging it by its power to ground and guide behavior, morality, and sociality. As American exceptionalism resurfaces in public discourse, Carson's timely work invites readers to reconsider the nexus of religion, politics, and culture. Carson argues that defining religion according to secularist criteria has insulated ostensibly secular ideologies as well as traditional religion from public scrutiny. DeLillo's, Castillo's, Pynchon's, Saunders's, and Robinson's redefinitions of religion result in a better grasp of how individuals actually live out their religious lives. More importantly, these authors help erect a framework for constructively engaging American exceptionalism and the ideas that support it.

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