Overview
Draws on novels from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century
Examines theological, historical, and philosophical influences on confession
Considers confession and guilt both within and outside religious constructs
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
God and Self in the Confessional Novel explores the question: what happened to the theological practice of confession when it entered the modern novel? Beginning with the premise that guilt remains a universal human concern, this book considers confession via the classic confessional texts of Augustine and Rousseau. Employing this framework, John D. Sykes, Jr. examines Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, Percy’s Lancelot, and McEwan’s Atonement to investigate the evolution of confession and guilt in literature from the eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century.
Reviews
“Both erudite and accessible, this engaging study will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students. Sykes convincingly establishes the deep architectonics of the confessional novel by situating it in relation to the legacies of Augustine and Rousseau. He is equally attentive to the complexities of literary history and of individual fictions, presenting incisive new readings of major works by Goethe and Dostoevsky as well as representative twentieth-century and contemporary authors.” (Farrell O'Gorman, Professor of English, Belmont Abbey College, USA, and author of Catholicism and American Borders in the Gothic Literary Imagination, 2017)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
John D. Sykes, Jr. is the Mary and Harry Brown Professor of English and Religion at Wingate University, USA. He is the author of Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, and the Aesthetic of Revelation (2007) and has published widely in the field of theology and literature.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: God and Self in the Confessional Novel
Authors: John D. Sykes, Jr.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91322-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-91321-6Published: 22 June 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08224-6Published: 22 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-91322-3Published: 08 June 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 157
Topics: Fiction, Literary Theory, Philosophy of Religion