Ecocritical Theology: Neo-Pastoral Themes in American Fiction from 1960 to the Present

The literary field of ecocriticism appraises texts from the perspective of the natural world, its biosystems, its animals (human and otherwise), and its ecological interconnections. Exploring a range of contemporary American novelists whose narratives resonate with numerous ecological challenges, this work examines humankind's relationship with the environment in the context of Judeo-Christian theological views. It demonstrates how characters from novels such as John Updike's Rabbit Run, DeLillo's White Noise, Toni Morrison's Paradise, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road take neopastoral journeys to rediscover an innovative relationship with nature and religion. While some are successful, others turn away from the landscape's spirituality, retreating into technological inventions. The journeys of these fictional American heroes, this volume shows, mirror ongoing, theological, nuclear age convictions.

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Ecocritical Theology: Neo-Pastoral Themes in American Fiction from 1960 to the Present

The literary field of ecocriticism appraises texts from the perspective of the natural world, its biosystems, its animals (human and otherwise), and its ecological interconnections. Exploring a range of contemporary American novelists whose narratives resonate with numerous ecological challenges, this work examines humankind's relationship with the environment in the context of Judeo-Christian theological views. It demonstrates how characters from novels such as John Updike's Rabbit Run, DeLillo's White Noise, Toni Morrison's Paradise, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road take neopastoral journeys to rediscover an innovative relationship with nature and religion. While some are successful, others turn away from the landscape's spirituality, retreating into technological inventions. The journeys of these fictional American heroes, this volume shows, mirror ongoing, theological, nuclear age convictions.

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Ecocritical Theology: Neo-Pastoral Themes in American Fiction from 1960 to the Present

Ecocritical Theology: Neo-Pastoral Themes in American Fiction from 1960 to the Present

by Joan Anderson Ashford
Ecocritical Theology: Neo-Pastoral Themes in American Fiction from 1960 to the Present

Ecocritical Theology: Neo-Pastoral Themes in American Fiction from 1960 to the Present

by Joan Anderson Ashford

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Overview

The literary field of ecocriticism appraises texts from the perspective of the natural world, its biosystems, its animals (human and otherwise), and its ecological interconnections. Exploring a range of contemporary American novelists whose narratives resonate with numerous ecological challenges, this work examines humankind's relationship with the environment in the context of Judeo-Christian theological views. It demonstrates how characters from novels such as John Updike's Rabbit Run, DeLillo's White Noise, Toni Morrison's Paradise, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road take neopastoral journeys to rediscover an innovative relationship with nature and religion. While some are successful, others turn away from the landscape's spirituality, retreating into technological inventions. The journeys of these fictional American heroes, this volume shows, mirror ongoing, theological, nuclear age convictions.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786469741
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date: 05/21/2012
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Joan Anderson Ashford lives in Conyers, Georgia, where she teaches Bible studies and writing classes.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Foreword Randy Malamud 11

Introduction 15

1 Freud, Bakhtin, and Rabbit: An Ecocritical Look at Totem, Animism, and the Rogue in John Updike's Rabbit, Run 29

2 And the Word Was Made Metaphor: Oedipa's Religious Instant in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 47

3 Nature, God, and Politics: Deep Ecology and Spinozan Theory in Bernard Malamud's The Fixer 67

4 Apocalypse Visited: Toxic Consciousness in Don DeLillo's White Noise 83

5 Re-Weaving Master Metaphors in Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead 101

6 Interlocking Pillars of Oppression: Ecofeminist Theology in Toni Morrison's Paradise 121

7 Theories of Ecotheology in Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer 151

8 Sophia's Table and Nuclear Narrative in Cormac McCarthy's The Road 175

Conclusion 199

Bibliography 203

Index 207

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