1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910808296803321

Autore

Bradley Arthur

Titolo

The new atheist novel : fiction philosophy and polemic after 9/11 / Arthur Bradley and Andrew Tate

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; New York, : Continuum, 2010

ISBN

1-4725-4283-5

1-283-27204-0

9786613272041

1-4411-5792-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (147 p.)

Collana

New directions in religion and literature

Disciplina

823.9209382118

Soggetti

Religion and literature

Atheism and literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- 1. Ian McEwan's End of the World Blues -- 2. Martin Amis and the War for Cliché -- 3. Salman Rushdie and the 'Quarrel Over God' -- 4. Philip Pullman's Republic of Heaven -- Conclusion

Sommario/riassunto

"The New Atheist Novel is the first study of a major new genre of contemporary fiction. It examines how Richard Dawkins's so-called 'New Atheism' movement has caught the imagination of four eminent modern novelists: Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Philip Pullman. For McEwan and his contemporaries, the contemporary novel represents a new front in the ideological war against religion, religious fundamentalism and, after 9/11, religious terror: the novel apparently stands for everything - freedom, individuality, rationality and even a secular experience of the transcendental - that religion seeks to overthrow. In this book, Bradley and Tate offer a genealogy of the New Atheist Novel: where it comes from, what needs it serves and, most importantly, where it may go in the future. What is it? How does it dramatise the war between belief and non-belief? To what extent does it represent a genuine ideological alternative to the religious imaginary or does it merely repeat it in secularised form? This fascinating study offers an incisive critique of this contemporary testament of literary



belief and unbelief."--Bloomsbury Publishing

The New Atheist Novel is the first study of a major new genre of contemporary fiction. It examines how Richard Dawkins's so-called 'New Atheism' movement has caught the imagination of four eminent modern novelists: Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Philip Pullman. For McEwan and his contemporaries, the contemporary novel represents a new front in the ideological war against religion, religious fundamentalism and, after 9/11, religious terror: the novel apparently stands for everything - freedom, individuality, rationality and even a secular experience of the transcendental - that religion seeks to overthrow. In this book, Bradley and Tate offer a genealogy of the New Atheist Novel: where it comes from, what needs it serves and, most importantly, where it may go in the future. What is it? How does it dramatise the war between belief and non-belief? To what extent does it represent a genuine ideological alternative to the religious imaginary or does it merely repeat it in secularised form? This fascinating study offers an incisive critique of this contemporary testament of literary belief and unbelief.