Author: Knight, Mark

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 39, Numbers 1-2, 1 july 2009 , pp. 126-136(11)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

Abstract:

Religious readings of culture are often attacked for their monolithic tendencies, with critics complaining that the multiple meaning of signs are too easily mistaken for wonders that are then read in one univocal way. Although such criticisms find plenty of historical precedents, a similar preference for the one over the many is evident throughout the interpretative systems that dominate the modern world. As theologians such as Colin Gunton have argued, the theological tradition offers unique resources for reading culture differently. Focusing on the imaginative account of the modern metropolis provided by G. K. Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), this essay considers these theological resources further. In place of the monolithic reading symbolized by modern advertising, Chesterton explores the possibilities of sacramental reading, locating it within a broader theological framework that enables us to interpret the world without sacrificing the needs of the one or the many.

Keywords: Religious readings of culture; monolithic; signs; wonders; one; many; modern world; Colin Gunton; modern metropolis; G. K. Chesterton; The Napoleon of Notting Hill; monolithic reading; modern advertising; Chesterton; sacramental reading

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Roehampton 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.

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