The Calvinist Roots of the Modern EraAliki Barnstone, Michael Tomasek Manson, Carol J. Singley Multidisciplinary views of Calvinism's dynamic, diverse, and persistent influence on modern American literature and thought. Many of America's philosophical, social, and religious traditions are founded upon Calvinist beliefs, and that heritage inevitably permeates our literature, too. While the debt of 18th- and 19th-century writers to Calvinism as theological doctrine and secular ideology has already been well documented, this collection of essays traces Calvinism's presence in 20th-century literature and demonstrates its impact as psychological construct, cultural institution, and socio-political model. From Pound to Faulkner, Eliot to Wharton, modern American poets, novelists, and film-makers of different religious, ethnic, and regional backgrounds have breathed in the Calvinist atmosphere. With fresh illuminations of the works of Marianne Moore, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Bishop, Kate Chopin, and others, this book cuts across disciplines, periods, and genres to examine the presence of such Calvinist concepts as election, conversion experiences, duty, sexual repression, and apocalypse. The editors conclude that, rather than being a monolithic force, Calvinism has "instead been dynamic, as different writers redefine and restructure it to fit their purposes and beliefs." |
Contents
Loris Mirella | 20 |
Elsa Nettels | 36 |
John J Murphy | 53 |
The Modernist Conversion of Willa Cathers Professor 335 | 73 |
Jeredith Merrin | 91 |
Elisa | 107 |
Ivy Schweitzer | 125 |
Aliki Barnstone | 145 |
Susan Goodman | 198 |
Milton J Bates | 212 |
Jonathan N Barron | 231 |
Jane Cocalis | 250 |
Michael Tomasek Manson | 263 |
Rocco Marinaccio | 281 |
297 | |
Contributors | 315 |
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Common terms and phrases
American literature Anne Anne Bradstreet Anne Hutchinson argues Barton believe Bercovitch Berryman Bishop Bradstreet called Calvinism Calvinism's Calvinist characters Christian church conversion crisis critics cultural death Dickinson discourse divine doctrine dream Edith Wharton Edna Edna's Eliot's Elizabeth Bishop Ellen Glasgow Emily Emily Dickinson England Ernest Hemingway essay Ethan Frome experience Ezra Pound faith father feelings female fiction Gary Soto Glasgow God's grace Hawthorne Hawthorne's Hemingway Hemingway's Hester Howells Howells's human jeremiad Jesus Jewish John John Berryman Kurtz language Levine literary living male Marianne Moore masculinity meaning metaphor midrashic modern modernist Moore's moral Morrison myth narrative narrator nature novel poem poet poetic poetry political Pound professor proletarian Puritan radical reader redemption religious rhetoric salvation Scarlet Letter sense sexual social Soto Soto's soul spiritual Stafford Stern story suggests tion tradition typology vision wilderness woman women words writers York