The Pagan Writes Back
When World Religion Meets World Literature
University of Virginia Press · Print & ebook · May 21, 2015
In the first book to consider the study of world religion and world literature in concert, Zhange Ni proposes a new reading strategy that she calls "pagan criticism," which she applies not only to late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century literary texts that engage the global resurgence of religion but also to the very concepts of religion and the secular.
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- Who it’s for
- Zhange Ni brings literary study and religious thought together through a cross-cultural reading strategy.
- Genres
- Comparative Literature, Religion in Literature, Comparative Religion
- Published
- University of Virginia Press, May 21, 2015
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In the first book to consider the study of world religion and world literature in concert, Zhange Ni proposes a new reading strategy that she calls "pagan criticism," which she applies not only to late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century literary texts that engage the global resurgence of religion but also to the very concepts of religion and the secular.
Continue reading
Focusing on two North American writers (the Jewish American Cynthia Ozick and the Canadian Margaret Atwood) and two East Asian writers (the Japanese End? Sh?saku and the Chinese Gao Xingjian), Ni reads their fiction, drama, and prose to envision a "pagan (re)turn" in the study of world religion and world literature. In doing so, she highlights the historical complexities and contingencies in literary texts and challenges both Christian and secularist assumptions regarding aesthetics and hermeneutics. In assessing the collision of religion and literature, Ni argues that the clash has been not so much between monotheistic orthodoxies and the sanctification of literature as between the modern Western model of religion and the secular and its non-Western others. When East and West converge under the rubric of paganism, she argues, the study of religion and literature develops into that of world religion and world literature.
Pagan Criticism
Zhange Ni brings literary study and religious thought together through a cross-cultural reading strategy.
Come here for
- A reading strategy linking world religion and world literature
- Close readings of Cynthia Ozick, Margaret Atwood, Endō Shūsaku, and Gao Xingjian
Expect
- Discussion of fiction, drama, and prose
- A challenge to Christian and secularist assumptions about literature
Where it sits
| Religion in Literature | 79% |
|---|---|
| Comparative Literature | 54% |
| Comparative Religion | 42% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Religion & Philosophy
- Authors
- Zhange Ni
- Publisher
- University of Virginia Press
- Published
- May 21, 2015
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Religion & Philosophy