1st Edition
Postmodern, Marxist, and Christian Historical Novels Hope and the Burdens of History
Postmodern, Marxist, and Christian Historical Novels: Hope and the Burdens of History argues historical novels can help readers receive the burdens of history—meaning both the burdens of the past, present, and future and the burden of living in time—and develop a more robust conception of and concrete practice of hope. Since the 1960s, historical novels have been a dominant literary genre, but they have been influenced primarily not by Christian but by postmodern and marxist thinkers and writers. This book provides a theological and literary analysis of all three types of historical novels—postmodern, marxist, and Christian—and outlines what each school of thought can learn from each other regarding historical understanding and hope. Using Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of hope and Frank Kermode’s literary criticism as a theoretical basis, the book offers readings of novels by Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Ian McEwan, and Ursula LeGuin, among others, and ends with an extended analysis of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead series.
Chapter One: Hope, History, and Historical Novels: Postmodern, Marxist, Christian
Chapter Two: Frank Kermode, Jürgen Moltmann, and Three Modern Derivatives of Christian Hope
Chapter Three: Postmodern Historical Novels: Idealistic and Ironic Hopes
Chapter Four: Marxist Historical Novels: Utopic Hope
Chapter Five: Moltmann on Eschatological Historiography and the Modern Church
Chapter Six: Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead Series: Historical Novels for a Disburdened Church
Biography
Lynne W. Hinojosa is Associate Professor of Literature in the Honors Program at Baylor University. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame (2003). In addition to essays in journals such as Literature and Theology, Religion and Literature, and the Journal of Modern Literature, she has published two scholarly monographs: The Renaissance, English Cultural Nationalism, and Modernism, 1860-1920 (Palgrave, 2009), and Puritanism and Modernist Novels: From Moral Character to the Ethical Self (The Ohio State University Press, 2015).
"At a time when hope is too often dismissed as a utopian ideal, Hinojosa argues that this virtue is, in fact, a worldly practice, one that engages not only the future but the present and past as well. Her readings of modern historical fiction within the framework of Jürgen Moltmann and others show how genuine hope makes a difference in the lives of characters and readers alike, enabling us to participate in God’s mission of love and justice."- Elizabeth Newman, Adjunct Professor of Theology, Duke Divinity School
"Hinojosa deftly navigates the fields of literary theory, Marxist thought, and Christian theology to appraise the hollowed-out accounts of history and hope in much contemporary fiction. Novels as disparate as The English Patient and Parable of the Sower come under scrutiny for circumventing "the historic character of reality," a phrase from Hinojosa’s primary interlocutor, Jürgen Moltmann. These and other works manifest hope as ironic detachment or triumph over time or presumptuous utopia, while Marilynne Robinson’s fiction, in contrast, discloses the congruity of history and hope as her characters experience transformation within, not in spite of, the brokenness of the past, present, and their longed-for futures. For specialists perhaps, this book nonetheless speaks to the urgency of our cultural moment in which the myriad crises we face cry out for a practical, actionable hope by which we can claim that another world—of wounds healed, of violence reckoned with—is possible."
- Debra Dean Murphy, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia Wesleyan College
