• Login
    View Item 
    •   BEARdocs Home
    • Graduate School
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   BEARdocs Home
    • Graduate School
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    American religion and its discontents : American ideology and alternatives in DeLillo, Pynchon, Castillo, and Robinson.

    View/Open
    CARSON-DISSERTATION-2017.pdf (2.129Mb)
    jordan_carson_copyright and availability form.pdf (42.07Kb)
    Access rights
    No access - Contact librarywebmaster@baylor.edu
    Date
    2017-03-03
    Author
    Carson, Jordan D., 1983-
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    This study examines the critiques of American civil religion by four contemporary American authors: Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Ana Castillo, and Marilynne Robinson. The works of these authors revolt against secularism as a normative worldview, showing religious faith to be an unvanquishable facet of human life. Yet these writers also insist that religious faith is often misplaced in spiritually enervating objects. They diagnose American cultural malaise as a spiritual deficiency requiring a spiritual remedy. DeLillo, Pynchon, Castillo, and Robinson view contemporary American selfhood as a truncated thing and impute the poverty of this selfhood to two paradoxically related causes: the first is a lack of recognition of genuine transcendence, and the second is a pervasive and comprehensive American ideology that serves as an ersatz spiritual discipline, offering “America” itself as transcendent and dictating the individual’s vision of the good life. The purpose of this study is not to offer a normative account of the form and function of American political ideology, but rather to demonstrate how these four writers depict and respond to it. Each of the respective chapters on DeLillo, Pynchon, Castillo, and Robinson proceeds through two movements: first, establishing the author’s depiction of American political ideology as a false religion, then identifying the spiritual alternatives presented by the author. Excepting Robinson, the authors discussed have been accused of lacking moral vision and even of nihilism; this study aims to combat this reputation and to show that these writers unequivocally hold human flourishing to be contingent upon a flourishing spiritual life.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2104/10032
    Collections
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Theses/Dissertations - English Language and Literature

    Copyright © Baylor® University All rights reserved. Legal Disclosures.
    Baylor University Waco, Texas 76798 1-800-BAYLOR-U
    Baylor University Libraries | One Bear Place #97148 | Waco, TX 76798-7148 | 254.710.2112 | Contact: libraryquestions@baylor.edu
    If you find any errors in content, please contact librarywebmaster@baylor.edu
    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    TDL
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Copyright © Baylor® University All rights reserved. Legal Disclosures.
    Baylor University Waco, Texas 76798 1-800-BAYLOR-U
    Baylor University Libraries | One Bear Place #97148 | Waco, TX 76798-7148 | 254.710.2112 | Contact: libraryquestions@baylor.edu
    If you find any errors in content, please contact librarywebmaster@baylor.edu
    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    TDL
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV