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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Religious fiction'
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Harwood, C. Reed. "Performative fiction: Articulating religious identities." Connect to online resource, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1442906.
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Rine, Abigail. "Words incarnate : contemporary women’s fiction as religious revision." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1961.
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This thesis investigates the prevalence of religious themes in the work of several prominent contemporary women writers—Margaret Atwood, Michèle Roberts, Alice Walker and A.L. Kennedy. Relying on Luce Irigaray’s recent theorisations of the religious and its relationship to feminine subjectivity, this research considers the subversive potential of engaging with religious discourse through literature, and contributes to burgeoning criticism of feminist revisionary writing. The novels analysed in this thesis show, often in violent detail, that the way the religious dimension has been conceptualised and articulated enforces negative views of female sexuality, justifies violence against the body, alienates women from autonomous creative expression and paralyses the development of a subjectivity in the feminine. Rather than looking at women’s religious revision primarily as a means of asserting female authority, as previous studies have done, I argue that these writers, in addition to critiquing patriarchal religion, articulate ways of being and knowing that subvert the binary logic that dominates Western religious discourse. Chapter I contextualises this research in Luce Irigaray’s theories and outlines existing work on feminist revisionist literature. The remaining chapters offer close readings of key novels in light of these theories: Chapter II examines Atwood’s interrogation of oppositional logic in religious discourse through her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Chapter III explores two novels by Roberts that expose the violence inherent in religious discourse and deconstruct the subjection of the (female) body to the (masculine) Word. Chapters IV and V analyse the fiction of Kennedy and Walker respectively, revealing how their novels confront the religious denigration of feminine sexuality and refigure the connection between eroticism and divinity. Evident in each of these fictional accounts is a forceful critique of religious discourse, as well as an attempt to more closely reconcile foundational religious oppositions between divinity and humanity, flesh and spirit, and body and Word.
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Kim, Young-Ho. "People's tradition of religious education /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1991. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/11169321.
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Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Teachers College, Columbia University, 1991.Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Douglas M. Sloan. Dissertation Committee: William B. Kennedy. Includes bibliographical references: (leaf 139-143).
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Kveberg, Torbjørn. "‘New Terrorism’ - Fact or Fiction? : A Descriptive and Quantitative Analysis of Religious Terrorism Since 1985." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for sosiologi og statsvitenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-16853.
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Novak, Kenneth Paul. "The religious significance of the medieval body and Flannery O'Connor's fiction." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6441.
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Flannery O'Connor based what she called her "anagogic vision" on the medieval way of seeing the world that allowed the reader of a text to discern "different levels of reality in one image or one situation." In my thesis I focus on the ways in which O'Connor revives this literary strategy and adapts it to address the modern cultural context. Accordingly, I examine in particular how her fiction engages Descartes' worship of consciousness and Nietzsche's supposition that "God is dead" by anagogically endowing her characters' bodies with two layers of signification. The first signified body is the spiritually-dead body, which belongs to the character who believes he is a god unto himself by virtue of his intellect. Since the character accepts his mind as his essence of being, his body appears in O'Connor's stories as the image of a soulless identity, a corpse. When the character recognizes the rightful place of the soul, the whole person emerges from the second signified body.
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Thompson, Mary-Anne Carey. "Future tense : an analysis of science fiction as secular apocalyptic literature." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15880.
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Bibliography: leaves 208-219.Religious apocalyptic literature appears to have been written in response to a situation of crisis in which the believers found themselves. It is the catalyst which provided the energy which the society needed in order to withstand that crisis, and it did this by radically inverting the dimensions which make up a worldview, that is the dimensions of time and space, and the classification of groups, so that it reflects the possibility of a new order, a new heaven and a new earth. Since the nineteenth century, the Western world has seen itself in a constant state of crisis in terms of the rapid secularisation, industrialisation and urbanisation, and it would seem that the notion of an apocalypse is still relevant. But religious visions of the apocalypse do not seem to have relevance to the largely secular society they would have been addressing. Something new, immediate and drastic was needed, which would supply the society with the energy to withstand the crisis of a secular world. Science fiction as a literary genre arose in the late nineteenth century, and it would seem as if the new social situation generated a new symbolic vocabulary for ancient apocalyptic themes, in other words, science fiction appeared as an imaginative literary genre of mythic, apocalyptic dimensions to address this situation. In the same way as religious visions of the apocalypse, science fiction inverts the components of a worldview so that a new social order, a new heaven and a new earth are seen as possible. In order to explore this theme, science fiction is examined in the light of radical inversion of accepted worldviews, and the genre is divided into three historical periods in order to understand the conditions under which it was written, as well as the content of the material involved. These periods are: 1. Apocalypses of Expectation and Hope. The late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century; the beginnings of the genre in the crisis of rapid industrialisation, secularisation and urbanisation, using the works of Jules Verne and H G Wells. 2. Apocalypses of Irony and Despair. The nineteen twenties to the end of the Second World War; the crises of the two World Wars on a complacent world, using the works of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. 3. Apocalypses of Destruction and Redemption. The nineteen fifties to the present; the crisis of nuclear power and thinking machines, using the works of Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov. Also examined are the quasi-religious nature of science fiction, apocalypse as a cleansing agent of the universe, and the myths of noble survivors of post-apocalyptic literature and films. In the light of the above, it can be understood why science fiction can be seen as the functional equivalent to religious apocalyptic myth, but relevant to the largely secular Western world of the twentieth century.
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Ode, Jon. "Religion in computer games : Religious themes conveyed through an unorthodox medium." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Avdelningen för humaniora och genusvetenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-12064.
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The purpose of this essay is an attempt to create a “first basis” of reliability for religious content in computes games, and its value in academic studies. While not researching it in depth, this essay will also give a suggestion of computer games’ potential as a didactic medium. A quantitative comparative analysis has been performed, to present several common religious themes and their occurrence in the computer game respectively. While researching the game, an abundance of religious themes have been found, documented and presented. Through this, it is concluded that computer games not only have the capability of presenting religious themes; they are found to be capable mediums of presentation. The content itself is of high varsity and of great interest to any religious scholar.
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McIntyre, Heather Dawn. "Mystical Motherhood: Blending Ecstatic Religious Experience with Feminist Discourse in Appalachian Fiction." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1276621461.
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Blanke, Ilani S. "Bad Religion: How Ex-Mormon Fiction Reinforces Normative Views of American Religion." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/rs_theses/38.
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This project examines recent fiction by ex-Mormon authors and highlights how these novels reinforce an American ideal of “good religion.” These texts reveal the boundaries of American religious freedom by illustrating examples of “bad religion” and providing favorable alternatives. The paper looks at scholarship on 19th century anti-Mormon literature, which provides a foundation for the more modern literature at hand. Through the recent narratives, authors point to an abstract concept of benign, acceptable religion, marking as harmful that which does not share these key characteristics. While these fictional sects appear differently in each work, they comment on similar themes, such as the threat of rigid authority structures and figures, community isolation and insulation, coercive proselytizing and manipulation, and an emphasis on escaping the sect. These themes highlight the existence of a particular brand of American “good religion,” which is antithetical to such groups illustrated in these texts.
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Cook, Susan Deborah. "The Pilgrim's progress : its influence on and relationship to religious fiction 1678-1710." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311461.
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Hohman, Xiamara Elena. "Transcending the “Malaise”: Redemption, Grace, and Existentialism in Walker Percy’s Fiction." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1272680647.
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Frear, Sara S. ""A fine view of the delectable mountains" the religious vision of Mary Virginia Terhune and Augusta Jane Evans Wilson /." Auburn, Ala., 2007. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/07M%20Dissertations/FREAR_SARA_35.pdf.
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Baird, David. "Zeitgeist incarnate : a theological interpretation of postapocalyptic zombie fiction." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16978.
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This thesis attempts to take seriously the claims made by many postapocalyptic zombie narratives to represent the world as it truly is, analyzing and then assessing the theological value of their depictions of the human predicament. The approach is both formal and what Gary Wolfe calls transmedial, examining the recurring narrative structures and themes of texts across several media and eras as part of 'a popular aesthetic movement and not just a body of works of fiction on similar themes', with special attention given to the films and television of the new millennium. The aim is twofold: to extend the relevance of postapocalyptic zombie fictions beyond the relatively narrow vogue of a cultural moment, and to prompt a richer appreciation of the significance of the Christian faith within contemporary society. To this end, Chapter One contextualizes the complexity of these texts' relationship to Christianity by examining first the most prominent obstacles and then the implicit promise of these texts for theological reflection. It places special emphasis on the interior tension in many of these fictions between, on the one hand, aggressively emphasizing the apparent absence of the supernatural, while on the other, frequently claiming to disclose a dimension of human experience in excess of what can be ordinarily perceived by the senses. Chapters Two and Three extend this analysis to the complex content of what these stories depict. Chapter Two considers the multilayered symbolism of decline in their conspicuous spectacles of disaster, disintegration, and death. Chapter Three examines the countervailing symbolic motifs of residual integrity and regeneration that are exhibited most prominently by characters who attempt to live genuinely human lives in spite of these circumstances. The first half of the thesis concludes by proposing a composite postapocalyptic view of the human predicament, which represents the world as ambiguous, dramatic and quite possibly, although not certainly, absurd. Chapter Four begins the theological reflection upon this kind of postapocalyptic perspective, proposing how such depictions might be illuminated by Christian theological descriptions, particularly the absurd existential circumstances brought about by the original sin. Chapter Five, reciprocally, suggests some of the ways the dramatic images of these texts might enrich theological reflection by eliciting fresh insights into the significance of the central mysteries of Christianity, especially the paradoxical already-and-not-yet of eschatological expectation. The thesis concludes by offering a final evaluation of whether, all told, the world can be truly considered postapocalyptic from a Christian perspective, arguing that although there are significant differences, postapocalyptic fictions and Christianity put forward strikingly similar pictures of the deeply self-conflicted circumstances of the common human predicament.
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Stovell, Beth Marie. "A love-informed fiction Charles Williams's romantic theology in his novels /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2006. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p048-0313.
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Elgblom, Simon. "McDonaldsization som en katalysator för radikaliseringsprocessen hos Saracenen : – en religionspsykologisk didaktisk analys av Saracenen i Jag är pilgrimen." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Religionspsykologi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-339449.
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To use fiction as educational material in school is proven to be effective and a good strategy to help students to understand and discuss other perspectives in difficult questions (Löfstedt, 2011). The aim with this essay is to evaluate Saracenens radicalization and the religious influence in Jag är pilgrimen written by Terry Hayes (2016). This was done through James Wallers (2007) theory of radicalization where three aspects of impact where analyzed (Waller, 2007). With a qualitative content analysis on chosen part of Hayes book (2016) three questions were answered. - How can Saracenens radicalization be described thru James Wallers (2007) radicalization process and what role dose religion play in this process? - Can we call Saracenens planning against USA as terrorism or religious terrorism? - How can chose parts of Hayes book (2016) be used in education for Religion 2 in Swedish gymnasium to meet following core content in syllabus: Religions and outlooks on life of importance for people's identity, affiliation, community and view of gender equality (Skolverket, 2017)? The conclusion from the analysis is that Saracenens radicalization is comparable with Wallers theory and that it is also possible to call Saracenens planning religious terrorism (Jones, 2008). As for the third question, the conclusion is that the material meets the core content well and can be used as a ground for discussion in classroom about radicalization and how religion affects individual’s life.
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Dandy, Josephine Elizabeth. "Defiant magic sizzled with religion : the political and religious roots of magical realist fiction in the contemporary multi-cultural and multi-credal world." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.403452.
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Saward, Melanie A. "Down in the river: Marcia's identity status paradigm in the cult novel." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/136517/1/Melanie_Saward_Thesis.pdf.
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Hagan, Justice M. "Desert Enlightenment: Prophets and Prophecy in American Science Fiction." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1366729757.
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Wright, Margaret S. "Private vs. public conscience the contradiction between George Eliot's atheism and her use of traditional Christianity in her fiction /." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2007.
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Fogelholm, Jens. "Lost in Space : Sökandet efter mening hos människan i Titan A.E." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-339480.
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This thesis deals with the depiction of meaningfulness and meaning-making, as seen in human characters in the 2000 animated science fiction film Titan A.E. (directed by Don Bluth). The analysis aims to show how Titan A.E. portrays a collective humanity in their search for a meaningful existence, given the outer space setting of its story. Evil is also brought up, in the context of how it creates meaning within the main narrative of the story. The emotions expressed by the story's characters are treated as if they were real. Meaningfulness and meaning-making get exemplified in both dialogue and visual components seen in the film. In addition to this, some reflection is made on the promotional trailers of Titan A.E. and how their displayed contents differ from the finished product. In parallel to the main analysis, there is a wider discussion made about the relationship between films and their real-world process of production, especially regarding whether theological reflection and the film industry can intersect or not.
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Hartley, Gregory Philip. "Lower Sacraments: Theological Eating in the Fiction of C. S. Lewis." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4329.
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For years, critics and fans of C. S. Lewis have noted his curious attentiveness to descriptions of food and scenes of eating. Some attempts have been made to interpret Lewis's use of food, but never in a manner comprehensively unifying Lewis's culinary expressions with his own thought and beliefs. My study seeks to fill this void. The introduction demonstrates how Lewis's culinary language aggregates through elements of his life, his literary background, and his Judeo-Christian worldview. Using the grammar of his own culinary language, I examine Lewis's fiction for patterns found within his meals and analyze these patterns for theological allusions, grouping them according to major categories of systematic theology. Chapter two argues that ecclesiastical themes appear whenever Lewis's protagonists eat together. The ritualized meal progression, evangelistic discourse, and biographical menus create a unity that points to parallels between Lewis's body of protagonists and the church. Chapter three focuses on the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and charges that Lewis's meals which are eaten in the presence of the novel's Christ figure or which include bread and wine in the menu reliably align with the Anglo-Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist. Chapter four studies how sinful eating affects the spiritual states of Lewis's characters. The chapter first shows how Lewis's culinary language draws from Edenic sources, resonating with a very gastronomic Fall of Humanity, then examines how the progressively sinful eating of certain characters signifies a gradual alienation from the Divine. The fifth, and concluding, chapter argues that Lewis's portrayal of culinary desire and pleasure ultimately points to an eschatological theme. This theme culminates near the end of Lewis's novels either through individual characters expressing superlative delight in their food or through a unified congregation of protagonists eating a celebratory feast during the novel's denouement. I close the study by emphasizing how this approach to Lewis's meals offers a complete spiritual analysis of Lewis's main characters that also consistently supports Lewis's own theology.
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Flanagan, Josephine M., of Western Sydney Nepean University, and School of Contemporary Arts. "Cosmic shopping." THESIS_XXX_CAR_Flanagan_J.xml, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/527.
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This novel is about Jess, a left wing trade unionist and student lawyer who, caught up in a fast-paced Sydney inner city life, goes to a hypnotist in an effort to drink less and instead has an experience of God. Her conscious self cannot cope with this and she represses it, but it still exists in a deeper part of her and the novel tracks the path by which she finally hauls and hacks her way back to it. The novel is divided into four parts, David, Jane, Padma and Jess. The first three parts tell of her emotionally dependencies on other people, and in the last section she finally finds a kind of hard-won peace and self-acceptance, and a love of God that is rooted in the small joys of her daily life.Master of Arts (Hons) (Creative Writing)
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Smith, Cynthia Anne Miller. "Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A canticle for Leibowitz a study of apocalyptic cycles, religion and science, religious ethics and secular ethics, sin and redemption, and myth and preternatural innocence /." unrestricted, 2006. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04272006-144149/.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006.Title from title screen. Reiner Smolinski, committee chair; Victor A. Kramer, Christopher Kocela, committee members. Electronic text (79 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed May 9, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-79).
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Fitting, Jessica. "Attack of the Fallen! Cinematic Portrayals of Fallen Angels in Post 9/11 Science Fiction Film." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2010. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/2.
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Abstract: The science fiction films which feature the angel Gabriel (The Prophecy (1995), Van Helsing (2004), Constantine (2005), Gabriel (2007), and Legion (2010)) represent a trend in exploring specific socio-cultural issues of America. All of these films explore fears over the loss of faith in American culture in a post 9/11 society. They are comparable to the ways in which science fiction films of the 1950’s addressed fears of the Cold War. By utilizing the alien invasion plot structure from the 50’s, contemporary plots have a pre-defined structure and film language in which to explore the themes of a crisis of faith. The fallen angels featured in all these films have their textual basis in the apocalyptic Jewish text of 1 Enoch, which presents an alternate origin of evil tale to the one found in the Christian Bible, which attributes to wicked fallen angels and provides the religious archetypal themes, moral basis and story ark for the fallen angels of the films. Furthermore, the films evoke an “uncanny Other” through the use of the angel Gabriel, who is a familiar Christian figure but who is uncanny in his modern portrayals, allowing frightening fears of the loss of faith and Christian identity to be explored through a familiar figure. Finally, the fears of encountering a “Muslim Other” in a post 9/11 world, and the millennial fears of uncertainty, are the cultural factors that lead to this crisis of faith present in all of these films.
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Ubisi, L. L. "Nkucetelo wa vukriste eku vumbeni ka swimunhuhatwa swa vavasati eka matsalwa ya Sasavona hi D.C. Marivate na Ri Xile hi S.B. Nxumalo." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2362.
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Thesis (M.A.(African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013The main aim of this study is to examine the way in which women are explored and explained by authors with special reference to Xitsonga novels, Ri xile by S.B. Nxumalo and Sasavona by D.C. Marivate. The first chapter reveals the general outline of the study, the problem statement, the aim, the importance and its methodology. The most important terms of the study has been explained in this chapter so as to reveal what is expected to be analyzed. Chapter two gives short summary of the novels Sasavona by D.C. Marivate and Ri xile by S.B. Nxumalo which have been examined together with the history of their authors. The definitions of the word characters and characterization have been included and defined in this chapter. In this chapter, the novels which have been selected to be analysed have been analysed. Chaper three explains, defines and analysed the themes of selected two novels. The definitions of theme has been given in this chapter. This definitions will make readers to understand what theme is. Chapter four deals with the setting or milieu of the above mentioned novels. Chapter five deals with the general summary of this mini-dissertation. The recommendations and recommendations for further research have been indicated in this chapter.
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Dahlbeck, Emma. "Dödens stad : En studie rörande framställningen av människan inför döden i Albert Camus Pesten." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-413077.
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This essay explores how the fictional portrayals of man-before-death in Albert Camus’ The Plague can convey insights related to studies in world views. Its thesis argues that the relationship between the author, the text and the reader provides a dialogue where the author can transmit his or her ideas to the reader whom is given a possibility of interpreting the text in accordance with his or her context. The thesis was conducted by organising a close-reading of three scenes from The Plague by an allegorical type of interpretation (Quadriga) in order to create a dialogue between the novel and contemporary studies of world views and the works of Albert Camus. Altogether, this thesis contributes to show how The Plague’s depictions of death can be used as a world-view document as well as demonstrating how its reader can use it to cope with scenarios in modern society.
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McArthur, Maxine Elisabeth. "In the gaps left unfilled : historical fantasy and the past." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/20297/1/Maxine_McArthur_Exegesis.pdf.
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The thesis consists of the novel The Fox and the Mirror and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is an historical fantasy set in a world based on early medieval (12-13th century) Japan. The main characters are a young female shaman, Hatsu, and a young warrior’s assistant, Sada, who is a Buddhist believer. When Hatsu’s village and shrine are destroyed by warriors and her summoning mirror is stolen, she is abandoned by her kami . To experience the kami’s presence again, she must follow the thief and retrieve the mirror before it can be used to resurrect an ancient evil. Sada must capture Hatsu and bring her back to his lord, or his family will suffer. Yet he is entranced by Hatsu and feels guilt at the destruction of her village. He must choose whether to abandon his former life and stay with Hatsu, or betray her.
In the novel I have tried to invoke the feel of a place and time where the supernatural is as real as the physical world; I also try to imagine how a religion as alien to Japanese native beliefs as Buddhism became a part of that country’s spiritual culture.
In the exegesis I reflect upon how I used various kinds of history, both written and unwritten, to build the world, characters and narratives of The Fox and the Mirror, and thereby explore some ways in which historical fantasy, as a sub-genre of historical fiction, is capable of presenting an ‘authentic’ view of the past, in spite of its non-realistic nature. I identify three main ways historical fantasy writers can provide an authentic view of the past: by using telling details from an historical era; by incorporating documented events and persons into the story; and by portraying the world as people in the past believed it to be. Historical fantasy is different from realistic historical fiction in that it can more easily incorporate elements belonging to shared cultural heritage, such as beliefs regarding the dead and the supernatural. This characteristic involves writers in research using material that involves other ways of knowing the past—in particular the expressions of belief such as religion, popular customs, folk tales, and oral history. With the broadening of our historiological perspectives in the postmodern climate, historical fantasy based on non-documentary forms of history may come to be seen as another way of knowing the past.
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McArthur, Maxine Elisabeth. "In the gaps left unfilled : historical fantasy and the past." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/20297/.
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The thesis consists of the novel The Fox and the Mirror and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is an historical fantasy set in a world based on early medieval (12-13th century) Japan. The main characters are a young female shaman, Hatsu, and a young warrior’s assistant, Sada, who is a Buddhist believer. When Hatsu’s village and shrine are destroyed by warriors and her summoning mirror is stolen, she is abandoned by her kami . To experience the kami’s presence again, she must follow the thief and retrieve the mirror before it can be used to resurrect an ancient evil. Sada must capture Hatsu and bring her back to his lord, or his family will suffer. Yet he is entranced by Hatsu and feels guilt at the destruction of her village. He must choose whether to abandon his former life and stay with Hatsu, or betray her.
In the novel I have tried to invoke the feel of a place and time where the supernatural is as real as the physical world; I also try to imagine how a religion as alien to Japanese native beliefs as Buddhism became a part of that country’s spiritual culture.
In the exegesis I reflect upon how I used various kinds of history, both written and unwritten, to build the world, characters and narratives of The Fox and the Mirror, and thereby explore some ways in which historical fantasy, as a sub-genre of historical fiction, is capable of presenting an ‘authentic’ view of the past, in spite of its non-realistic nature. I identify three main ways historical fantasy writers can provide an authentic view of the past: by using telling details from an historical era; by incorporating documented events and persons into the story; and by portraying the world as people in the past believed it to be. Historical fantasy is different from realistic historical fiction in that it can more easily incorporate elements belonging to shared cultural heritage, such as beliefs regarding the dead and the supernatural. This characteristic involves writers in research using material that involves other ways of knowing the past—in particular the expressions of belief such as religion, popular customs, folk tales, and oral history. With the broadening of our historiological perspectives in the postmodern climate, historical fantasy based on non-documentary forms of history may come to be seen as another way of knowing the past.
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Svendsen, Mark. "Tears of Glass A fin de siecle soap opera in three acts or a musical idea in process." Queensland University of Technology, 2003. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15818/.
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This work takes as its central "conceit" a specific cultural site, namely a small town choir-- The Emu Park and District Amateur Choral Society Inc., which operates in Central Queensland, circa 1965. A discontinuous narrative of interconnected short stories of one chapter each, highlight significant and often highly traumatic aspects of the interconnected lives of selected choir members. The narrative lampoons the English choral tradition against the setting of a society which does not deal with the political and social negativities of Queensland in the sixties. It is a culture in denial. The comedy deals with the often banal, though always good natured, behaviours of the choir members in dealing with often black-edged lives. An Overture introduces all characters, while Acts I, II & III deal with individual's stories. The Finale deals with the outcome of rehearsals in a culminating performance of the Emu Park and District Amateur Choral Society Incorporated. The short stories, one to a chapter, concern individual choir member's life stories and form discreet, fully finished pieces of work in their own right. Background action throughout the stories involves a series of rehearsals which structurally tie all the narratives to the final chapter. Lyrics of popular songs of the 1900's through to early 1960's are mentioned within the text. For copyright reasons the texts are not reproduced in full. However, these lyrics do comment tangentially on some aspect of the character's story.
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Smith, Cynthia M. "Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz: A Study of Apocalyptic Cycles, Religion and Science, Religious Ethics and Secular Ethics, Sin and Redemption, and Myth and Preternatural Innocence." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2006. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/10.
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Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a timeless story about apocalyptic cycles, conflicts and similarities between religion and science, religious ethics and secular ethics, sin and redemption, myth and preternatural innocence. Canticle is a very religious story about a monastery dedicated to preserving scientific knowledge from the time before nuclear war which devastated the world and reduced humanity to a pre-technological civilization. The Catholic Church and this monastery are portrayed as a bastion of civilization amidst barbarians and a light of faith amidst atheism. Unfortunately, humanity destroys the Earth once again, but Miller ends with two beacons of hope: a starship headed for the unknown to help humanity begin again and the preternaturally innocent Rachel who portends a future for similarly innocent human beings repopulating the Earth. Thus, faith ultimately triumphs over atheism even in the midst of almost total catastrophe.
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Syme, Neil. "Uncanny modalities in post-1970s Scottish fiction : realism, disruption, tradition." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/21768.
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This thesis addresses critical conceptions of Scottish literary development in the twentieth-century which inscribe realism as both the authenticating tradition and necessary telos of modern Scottish writing. To this end I identify and explore a Scottish ‘counter-tradition’ of modern uncanny fiction. Drawing critical attention to techniques of modal disruption in the works of a number of post-1970s Scottish writers gives cause to reconsider that realist teleology while positing a range of other continuities and tensions across modern Scottish literary history. The thesis initially defines the critical context for the project, considering how realism has come to be regarded as a medium of national literary representation. I go on to explore techniques of modal disruption and uncanny in texts by five Scottish writers, contesting ways in which habitual recourse to the realist tradition has obscured important aspects of their work. Chapter One investigates Ali Smith’s reimagining of ‘the uncanny guest’. While this trope has been employed by earlier Scottish writers, Smith redesigns it as part of a wider interrogation of the hyperreal twenty-first-century. Chapter Two considers two texts by James Robertson, each of which, I argue, invokes uncanny techniques familiar to readers of James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson in a way intended specifically to suggest concepts of national continuity and literary inheritance. Chapter Three argues that James Kelman’s political stance necessitates modal disruption as a means of relating intimate individual experience. Re-envisaging Kelman as a writer of the uncanny makes his central assimilation into the teleology of Scottish realism untenable, complicating the way his work has been positioned in the Scottish canon. Chapter Four analyses A.L. Kennedy’s So I Am Glad, delineating a similarity in the processes of repetition which result in both uncanny effects and the phenomenon of tradition, leading to Kennedy’s identification of an uncanny dimension in the concept of national tradition itself. Chapter Five considers the work of Alan Warner, in which the uncanny appears as an unsettling sense of significance embedded within the banal everyday, reflecting an existentialism which reaches beyond the national. In this way, I argue that habitual recourse to an inscribed realist tradition tends to obscure the range, complexity and instability of the realist techniques employed by the writers at issue, demonstrating how national continuities can be productively accommodated within wider, pluralistic analytical approaches.
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Dorsten, Sara E. "Priest of Wisdom: A Historical Novel Studying Ancient Greek Culture through Creative Writing." Ohio Dominican University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oduhonors1430788202.
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Miskimmin, Esme. "Detective fiction, religion, and Dorothy L. Sayers." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.406822.
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Howard-Laity, Elizabeth Jane. "Writing wrongs : re-vision and religion in contemporary women's fiction." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28705.
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This thesis examines in what ways contemporary women writers have revised Biblical figures and texts in order to challenge and deconstruct male authority, how previously silenced female voices are given speech through a new feminist religious discourse, and how women have renegotiated male ‘power’ for female empowerment. Focusing on five different Biblical figures or groups of women, Eve, the wives and daughters of Abraham, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and medieval female virgin martyr saints are examined in turn through the re-visionary fiction of nine authors. Examining both literary authors such as Angela Carter, Michèle Roberts, Jenny Diski and Emma Tennant and popular ones such as Penelope Farmer and Dan Brown, as well as several authors who have received little previous attention such as Anita Diamant, Sue Reidy and Ann Chamberlin, this thesis highlights the multiple and subjective nature of feminist re-vision of the Bible, while simultaneously exposing the pre-existing subjectivity within their foundational texts. By identifying how contemporary women writers both re-read and re-write received history, this thesis brings to the fore the transgressive potential of a tradition of women‘s religious writing that is marked by its marginalised position. Beginning with the suggestion that patristic origin myths validate the invisibility of women, I investigate how a focus on non-canonical and apocryphal traditions can give speech to previously silenced female voices, allowing for reconfigurations of gender beyond the patriarchally defined models of the Bible. Predicated upon Adrienne Rich‘s view of re-vision as ‘an act of survival’, this thesis suggests that religious discourse continues to affect cultural conceptions of gender. This thesis proposes therefore that feminist Biblical re-vision is just such an act of survival in which biased assumptions perpetuated about women can be exposed and problematised in order to both ‘write’ and ‘right’ the wrongs of the Bible.
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Hooper, Keith William James. "Dickens : faith and his early fiction." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/68154.
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This thesis, focusing on Dickens' early work ('Our Parish'to The Old Curiosity Shop), explorers the nature and fictional expression of the author's faith and the historical ecclesiastical elements of his writing. Dickens passionately believed that the Church was failing in its Christian responsibility to the poor. Contrary to contemporary religious thought, he neither accepted that the appalling depravation endured by the poor esulted from their personal sin, or that the imperative of spiritual redemption negated the Church's responsibility to ease their physical distress. He also realised that among his predominately London-based middle-class readership there was genuine ignorance of the reality of the suffering endured by the poor. In his early fiction Dickens used a two stage approach to communicate his personal beliefs about the poor. The first, adopted in 'Our Parish' and the first seven chapters of Oliver Twist, involved the graphic description of the suffering endured by the poor and the exposure of the inadequacies of the parochial system upon which they depended. Next, Dickens introduces his readers to a series of characters who embody his perception of Christian charity. Mr Pickwick, Mr brownlow and Charles Cheeryble (collectively referred to in this thesis as 'Charitable Angels')are, contrary to parochial officials and those who participate in charitable activity for their own selfish ends, shown to make a difference in the lives of those they assist. Dickens hoped that his readers would be inspired to emulate their actions.
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Darroch, Fiona Jane. "Memory and myth : postcolonial religion in contemporary Guyanese fiction and poetry." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2618.
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In this thesis I investigate and problematize the historical location of the term 'religion' and examine how this location has affected the analytical reading of postcolonial fiction and poetry. The term 'religion' has been developed in response to a Western Enlightenment and Christian history and its adoption outside of this context should therefore be treated with caution. Within postcolonial literary criticism, there has been either a silencing of the category as a result of this caution or an uncritical and essentialising adoption of the term 'religion'. I argue that a vital aspect of how writers articulate their histories of colonial contact, migration, slavery and the re-forging of identities in the wake of these histories is illuminated by the classificatory term 'religion'. I demonstrate this through the close reading of Guyanese fiction and poetry, as critical themes are seen and discussed that would be otherwise ignored. Aspects of postcolonial theory and Religious Studies theory are combined to provide a new insight into the literature and therefore expand the field of postcolonial literary criticism. The way in which writers 'remember' history through writing is central to the way in which I theorize and articulate 'religion' throughout the thesis; the act of remembrance is persuasively interpreted in terms of 'religion'. The title 'Memory and Myth' therefore refers to both the syncretic mythology of Guyana, and the key themes in a new critical understanding of 'religion'. Chapter One establishes the theoretical framework to be adopted throughout the thesis by engaging with key developments made in the past decade by Religious Studies theorists. Through this dialogue, I establish a working definition of the category religion whilst being aware of its limitations, particularly within a discussion of postcolonial literature. I challenge the reluctance often shown by postcolonial theorists in their adoption of the term 'religion' and offer an explanation for this reluctance. Chapter Two attends to the problems involved in carrying out interdisciplinary research, whilst demonstrating the necessity for such an enquiry. Chapters Three, Four and Five focus on selected Guyanese writers and poets and demonstrate the illuminating effect of a critical reading of the term 'religion' for the analysis of postcolonial fiction and poetry. Chapter Three provides a close reading of Wilson Harris's novel Jonestown alongside theoretical and historical material on the actual Jonestown tragedy. Chapter Four examines the mesmerising effect of the Anancy tales on contemporary writers, particularly poet John Agard. And Chapter Five engages with the work of Indo-Guyanese writer, David Dabydeen and his elusive character Manu.
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Dick, Barbara Kathleen. "Modern Arabic science fiction : science, society and religion in selected texts." Thesis, Durham University, 2016. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11907/.
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This thesis examines a selection of original SF or SF-inflected texts written in Arabic from the 1960s to the present day. It is a thematic study, considering their presentation of and attitudes to science and technology, utopias and ideal societies and religion. Although some critics attempt to figure SF as a continuation of the Thousand and One Nights fantastical tradition and the mirabile literature of the Middle Ages, Arabic science fiction, as an essentially modern genre, traces its earliest origins to the late 1950s in Egypt. It has experienced several sudden efflorescences during the following decades in the texts of a handful of authors, most of whom are Egyptian. In the past ten years, following a 2006 seminal essay by Iraqi-German engineer and SF critic Achmed Khammas on “The Almost Complete Lack of the Element of ‘Futureness’”, media and academic interest in Arabic science fiction has burgeoned, with both established (Ahmed Khalid Towfik) and new (Noura Noman) authors publishing in the genre in the past five years. In light of the relative lack of criticism of the Arabic corpus, this thesis seeks to begin the project of conducting a full critical study through a reading of selected texts from the 1960s to the present day, the majority of which have not previously been translated into English. The approach taken is broadly sociological, examining the texts in the light of three themes outlined above – science, ideal societies and the treatment of religion - that frequently frame SF criticism in English.
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Ceraldi, Gabrielle. "Protestant nationalism, religion, gender, and nation in Victorian anti-Catholic fiction." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ58202.pdf.
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Nelson, Cassandra Maria. "Age of Miracles: Religion and Screen Media in Postwar American Fiction." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11554.
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This dissertation examines how four postwar American writers, whose lives and fiction reveal a serious and sustained interest in religion and religious belief, treat screen media in their work. More specifically, it argues that Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, and Don DeLillo constitute a group of writers who espouse various forms of Catholic or crypto-Catholic belief. By allowing these writers to take seriously certain pre-modern ideas about metaphysical reality--namely, the possible existence of an immaterial, supernatural realm that transcends the physical, sensible world--these belief systems may have made them more attuned to the seemingly immaterial and supernatural properties of screen media.
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Wilkes, Kristin. "God and the Novel: Religion and Secularization in Antebellum American Fiction." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18713.
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My dissertation argues that the study of antebellum American religious novels is hindered by the secularization narrative, the widely held conviction that modernity entails the decline of religion. Because this narrative has been refuted by the growing field of secularization theory and because the novel is associated with modernity, the novel form must be reexamined. Specifically, I challenge the common definition of the novel as a secular form.
By investigating novels by Lydia Maria Child, Susan Warner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Hannah Bond, I show that religion and the novel form are not opposed. In fact, scholars' unexamined and unacknowledged definitions of religion and secularity cause imprecision. For example, the Marxist definition of religion as ideology causes misrepresentations of novels with evangelical purposes, such as Warner's The Wide, Wide World and Bond's The Bondwoman's Narrative. Both novels feature protagonists who submit--one to patriarchy and the other to slavery--a stance that appears masochistic to feminist scholars and critics of slave narratives, respectively. However, attending to the biblical allusions, divine interventions, and theological arguments that saturate these texts places them in another framework altogether and reveals that they are commenting not on one's relationship with other humans but with God.
Likewise, unexamined definitions of the secular are problematic because critics often conflate two definitions: the etymological sense of "earthly" and the modern sense of "anti-religious." This slippage underlies the view that religious literature of the nineteenth century became less religious, when it simply became more grounded in daily life. Therefore, to label as "secular" an author like Stowe, who promoted an earthly, lived Christianity, is only accurate if one means "mundane."
Finally, my dissertation demonstrates that literary criticism itself relies on the secularization narrative, perceiving itself as modern and progressive. This reliance obscures the role literature has played in constructing this narrative. For example, colonial novels like Hobomok and The Scarlet Letter rewrite American religious history to exclude Calvinism. Noting how our investment in secularity has delimited interpretive possibilities, this project opens the way for increased clarity in the study of religion in literature.
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Neal, Lynn S. "Romancing God : evangelical women and inspirational fiction /." Chapel Hill : the University of North Carolina press, 2006. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40145393b.
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y-Hall, Hilary Virginia. "The religious development of Halldor Laxness in his fictional prose works." Thesis, University of Hull, 1989. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3579.
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Yost, Kimberly S. "A Search for Home: Navigating Change in Battlestar Galactica." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1347903521.
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Maass, Alexandra. "La religion du corps en Californie." Thesis, Paris 4, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011PA040134.
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Le corps moderne est à la fois l’objet de rêves et d’interdits, un lieu de conflits, d’inégalités et d’investissements, mais il représente avant tout la quête contemporaine de la beauté ainsi que le rêve scientifique de la jeunesse et de l’immortalité. Le corps en Californie tient une place tellement importante qu’il n’est pas exagéré de parler de religion. La religion du corps crée dans un premier temps un lien vers le Divin puisque le corps est soit opposé à l’esprit soit il constitue un moyen d’accéder à la divinité, comme chez les orientaux. De la conception grecque antique à la version orientale, sans oublier de parler de la place du corps dans l’histoire californienne et de sa relation à un Dieu, nous nous rendrons compte que le corps considéré comme lien vers le Divin cède petit à petit sa place à une appropriation personnelle poussée à la fois par le narcissisme des années soixante puis par des impératifs normatifs. Le californien est alors à la quête de nouvelles expériences dont le médium est le corps, tout en étant à la recherche d’une perfection physique. Cela a donné vie à un vaste marché, créant ainsi une compatibilité entre la religion du corps et son aspect mercantile. Ce lien ne s’arrête pas seulement aux produits, ni à l’industrie que génère un tel marché, car le corps est devenu un investissement à capitaliser. Comme dans toute religion, il y a une part de fanatisme et de dérive dont il faut mesurer l’impact. L’ultime question est celle du rôle de la science dans l’évolution du corps. Cette nouvelle religion du corps, remplace doucement le lien premier vers le Divin, amenant l’homme vers plus de maîtrise, de connaissance et de contrôle sur son destinThe body’s new frontier is both an esthetic and scientific quest, with the wild dream of reaching an ideal beauty and immortality - or at least living better and longer. In California, the body and its cult are so important therefore we can safely say that it is a religion. This religion of the body is primarily linked to the Divine since in the classical point of view, the body is either linked to sin or is a way to reach God, as the oriental religions believe. From ancient Greece to the oriental influences, not forgetting how the body is perceived in California’s history and its relationship to the Divine, we will slowly become aware that this link is somehow being overshadowed by a personal appropriation of the body both triggered by the 1960’s narcissism and social norms. The typical californian seeks experiment and pushes boundaries using the body as a medium, while striving to reach physical perfection. Of course this cannot go without the growing of a massive market, hence the connexion between the religion of the body and its mercantile aspect. That link not only reflects the amount of products and services as well as the whole industry behind them, it also brings forward the fact that the body is considered as an object one has to invest in and capitalize on both the future and the present moment. As in all types of religion, there is a part of fanaticism and going astray. Its impact cannot be overlooked. The ultimate question is the role of science in the body’s evolution. What has become the new scientific religion of the body slowly replaces the initial link to the Divine, bringing mankind towards more knowledge, mastery, and control over its destiny
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Collins, Jennifer Renee. "The Detrimental Effects of Organized Religion on Women in Lee Smith's Fiction." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2002. http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0107102-135940/unrestricted/collinsj011502.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2002.Vita. Originally published in electronic format. UMI number: 1408216. Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-102). Also available via the World Wide Web.
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Casey, John J. "An apostate instauration : religion, moral vision and humanism in modern science fiction." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1989. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23759.
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Since the characteristic logicality of most science fiction can overshadow its debt to Romantic, or more properly, Gothic literature, the humanistic 'science fiction of aspiration' is a rather neglected element of the genre. This study offers evidence of a distinctive, often quite fundamental current of Gothic feeling which runs through some early science fiction; and traces the changing presentation of scientific materialism and the first strains of anticlericalism in later texts. As religious writers also have used the themes and conventions of science fiction astutely in attacking 'profane' science and 'secular' morality, especially in the context of the scientific or materialistic 'utopia', their stories are of considerable interest and are also discussed in detail. A reader by turns reminded of human sinfulness and then again confronted with the imputed inadequacies which the Romantic humanist seeks to transcend may well wonder why religion and science clash so recurrently in science fiction. The provenances, contexts and discourse of the moral perspectives which are commonly encountered in this popular genre are identified and discussed. These are particulary significant in the light of the apostate quality of humanistic texts, and their teleological concerns. Several influential critiques of institutionalised religion and clerical hypocrisy are examined fully; they reveal how the central device of the factitious religion developed from its generic beginnings in Butler's first satire, Erewhon, and emerged as a distinctive feature of science fiction. From the outset, the utilization of Faustian, Promethean and Messianic protagonists in this 'science fiction of aspiration' is scrutinised. Other intertextual features, whether conceptual, structural or thematic, are also elucidated. The study concludes with an examination of the most hubristic, sublime and teleological of the many themes of contemporary science fiction: the self-transcendence of man, the ultimate fulfilment of humanistic aspiration.
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Collins, Jennifer Renee. "The detrimental effects of organized religion on women in Lee Smith's fiction." [Johnson City, Tenn. : East Tennessee State University], 2001. http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0107102-135940/unrestricted/collinsj011502.pdf.
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Moore, Richard. "Christianity and paganism in Victorian fiction." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683121.
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Place, John. "Caroline Gordon's agrarian lost cause fiction, 1927-1937 : land, labour, religion and gender." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.247282.
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Höttges, Bärbel. "Faith matters : religion, ethnicity, and survival in Louise Erdrich's and Toni Morrison's fiction /." Heidelberg : Winter, 2007. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2991870&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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