Activism and the Literary Self in 20th- and 21st-Century Literature

Poetics of Justice

Jeffrey F. Keuss

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781350375727
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Exploring how Shusaku Endo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thomas Merton, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, and Octavia E. Butler engage with social justice and activism, this book explores the significant role that literature plays in the formation of justice. Jeff Keuss foregrounds literature and the role of poetics as both a method and a frame by which justice can not only be understood but uniquely positioned to transform and redeem the moral call on individuals in ways that some recent philosophical and ethical projects do not. He examines how these authors are representative of a theme in literature which is the "turn to justice" as a literary form and discusses how these authors' engagement with activism challenges isolated and anxious models of contemporary selfhood. Demonstrating how these writers utilize fiction, across different contexts of race, gender, culture, and theological denominations, to present themes of justice in communion with others, Keuss provides new insights into "communal selfhood" and shows how we can use this idea to shape our ideas of ethics, morality, activism, and justice.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• New Directions in Religion and Literature
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: Poetics of Justice and the Literary Self
• 1 Marilynne Robinson: False Nostalgia and the Literary Self
• 2 Shusaku Endō: Activism and Dismantling Missional Colonialism
• 3 Thomas Merton: The Literary Self and Contemplative Activism in the Face of Violence
• 4 Cormac McCarthy: Activism and Faith without Borders
• 5 Octavia E. Butler: Activism, Atheism, and the Interweaving of the Literary Self
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright Page