Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred
What does it feel like to experience the sacred today? Examining in detail many of this century's most significant writers, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth Strout, Marilynne Robinson, Mohsin Hamid, Michael Chabon, Howard Jacobson and Don DeLillo, Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred argues that contemporary social and cultural forms, most especially those of 21st century literature, are marked by what Emily McAvan calls a material sacred.

Placing Christian, Jewish and Muslim writers in conversation with the new materialisms, this book shows how secular and sacred mix unpredictably in contemporary writing. In this important contribution to the understanding of religion, materialism and literature, McAvan maps new territory, arguing that the material sacred shows us that the human and non-human, the divine and the profane, have been interwoven from the start.

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Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred
What does it feel like to experience the sacred today? Examining in detail many of this century's most significant writers, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth Strout, Marilynne Robinson, Mohsin Hamid, Michael Chabon, Howard Jacobson and Don DeLillo, Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred argues that contemporary social and cultural forms, most especially those of 21st century literature, are marked by what Emily McAvan calls a material sacred.

Placing Christian, Jewish and Muslim writers in conversation with the new materialisms, this book shows how secular and sacred mix unpredictably in contemporary writing. In this important contribution to the understanding of religion, materialism and literature, McAvan maps new territory, arguing that the material sacred shows us that the human and non-human, the divine and the profane, have been interwoven from the start.

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Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred

Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred

by Emily McAvan
Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred

Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred

by Emily McAvan

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Overview

What does it feel like to experience the sacred today? Examining in detail many of this century's most significant writers, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth Strout, Marilynne Robinson, Mohsin Hamid, Michael Chabon, Howard Jacobson and Don DeLillo, Divinity, Hospitality and the Posthuman in 21st-Century Literature: The Material Sacred argues that contemporary social and cultural forms, most especially those of 21st century literature, are marked by what Emily McAvan calls a material sacred.

Placing Christian, Jewish and Muslim writers in conversation with the new materialisms, this book shows how secular and sacred mix unpredictably in contemporary writing. In this important contribution to the understanding of religion, materialism and literature, McAvan maps new territory, arguing that the material sacred shows us that the human and non-human, the divine and the profane, have been interwoven from the start.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781350280410
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 05/28/2026
Pages: 224
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Emily McAvan is Sessional Tutor at Monash University, Australia. She is the author of The Postmodern Sacred (2012).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1. Introduction to 21st Century Postsecular Fiction

Section One – God and the Postsecular
Chapter 2. Strout and the Idea of God
Chapter 3. Robinson and Immanent Faith
Chapter 4. Chabon and the Messianic after the Death of God

Section Two – Hospitality and the Postsecular
Chapter 4. Rushdie and Religious Terror
Chapter 5. Hamid and Interreligious Hospitality
Chapter 6. Jacobson and Antisemitism in the Multicultural State

Section Three – The Postsecular and the Non-Human
Chapter 7. DeLillo's Posthuman Faith
Chapter 8. Atwood's Ecotheology

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

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