Secularism, Religion and the 20th/21st Century Novel

Abstract

AbstractAs many commentators within and beyond the academy decry the “resurgence of religion,” literary scholars have been reconsidering familiar narratives about religion and literature. Literary studies has a complex relation with secularization theses, narratives that tie the ostensible decline of religion in the modern age with the rise of modern literature, particularly the novel. Increasingly, however, scholars are stepping away from such rise‐and‐fall narratives and asking how literature—both literary texts and literary modes of reading—might contribute to shifting our understanding of secularism. Focusing on different methodological approaches scholars take to their study of the novel's relation to secularism, this article contrasts literary studies that take secularization theses as their point of departure with those that investigate the practices and sensibilities underlying and enabling contemporary secularism.