Introduction: Literature and Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Tate, Andrew

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 39, Numbers 1-2, 1 july 2009 , pp. 1-6(6)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

This introductory essay surveys the evolving field of literature and religion in the early twenty-first century. It also identifies key figures in the subject area and, with examples from Salman Rushdie and others, considers the relationship between social and religious fragmentation and modes of interpretation. The essay argues that literary studies itself has been reinvigorated during the last twenty years by its encounter with theology in a variety of manifestations, and it briefly considers the significance of religion in period research on the Renaissance, Romanticism, Victorian literature, and postmodernism. Finally, the essay introduces the individual contributions and offers a rationale for their inclusion.

Keywords: Early twenty-first century; social; religious fragmentation; modes of interpretation; Renaissance; Romanticism; Victorian literature; postmodernism

Document Type: Miscellaneous

Affiliations: 1: Lancaster University

Publication date: 2009-07-01

More about this publication?

A supplement to the Modern Language Review, this journal includes articles and reviews on the language and literature of the English-speaking world. Most of the volumes published so far are 'Special Numbers', collections of between fifteen and eighteen commissioned articles on particular topics, such as the impact of the French Revolution on English writers; literature in the modern media; and colonial and imperial themes in literature.