Ebook: The new atheist novel : fiction, philosophy and polemic after 9/11
Author: Amis Martin, McEwan Ian, Pullman Philip, Rushdie Salman, McEwan Ian, Pullman Philip, Tate Andrew, Rushdie Salman, Amis Martin, Bradley Arthur
- Tags: McEwan Ian -- Criticism and interpretation. Amis Martin -- Criticism and interpretation. Rushdie Salman -- Criticism and interpretation. Pullman Philip -- 1946- -- Criticism and interpretation. Religion and literature. Atheism and literature. English fiction -- 21st century -- History and criticism. Literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- Eu
- Series: New directions in religion and literature
- Year: 2010
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- City: London, New York, Englisch
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- pdf
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.