Rhetorics of Religion in American Fiction : Faith, Fundamentalism, and Fanaticism in the Age of Terror

This book addresses representations of belief in the polarized post-9/11 Age of Terror. Naydan tracks how both major and less-known contemporary authors of diverse religious heritages negotiate religious and ideological differences that involve secularism and atheism on the one hand and religious fundamentalism and fanaticism on the other.

Rhetorics of Religion in American Fiction considers the way in which contemporaryAmerican authors address the subject of belief in the post-9/11 Age of Terror. Naydansuggests that after 9/11, fiction by Mohsin Hamid, Laila Halaby, Philip Roth, DonDeLillo, John Updike, and Barbara Kingsolver dramatizes and works to resolve impassesthat exist between believers of different kinds at the extremes. These impasses emergeout of the religious paradox that shapes America as simultaneously theocratic andsecular, and they exist, for instance, between liberals and fundamentalists, betweenliberals and certain evangelicals, between fundamentalists and artists, and betweenfundamentalists of different varieties. Ultimately, Naydan argues that these authorsfunction as literary theologians of sorts and forge a relevant space beyond or betweenextremes. They fashion faith or lack thereof as hybridized and hence as a negotiationamong secularism, atheism, faith, fundamentalism, and fanaticism. In so doing, theyinvite their readers into contemplations of religious difference and new ways ofmemorializing 9/11.