The New Atheist Novel: Literature, Religion, and Terror in Amis and McEwan
Author: Bradley, Arthur1
Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 39, Numbers 1-2, 1 july 2009 , pp. 20-38(19)
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
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Abstract:
This article is the first study of a major new genre of contemporary fiction, the New Atheist Novel. It examines how Richard Dawkins's so-called New Atheism movement has caught the imagination of two eminent modern novelists, Ian McEwan and Martin Amis. For both authors, the contemporary novel represents a new front in the ideological war against religion, religious fundamentalism, and, after 9/11, religious terror: the novel apparently stands for everything - freedom, individuality, rationality, and even a secular experience of the transcendental - that religion allegedly seeks to overthrow. If the New Atheist Novel exhibits many of the strengths of its philosophical equivalent, however, it also demonstrates some of the latter's well-documented intellectual, political, andtheological blind spots. In conclusion, the article argues that what really defines the New Atheist Novel - for all its claims to champion freedom of thought, action, and expression - is a disturbing aesthetico-political dogmatism, about science, about reason, about religion, and, in particular, about Islam.Keywords: New Atheist Novel; Dawkins; New Atheism; Ian McEwan; Martin Amis; religion; theological blind spots
Document Type: Research article
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