Book of Empire: The Political Bible of U.S. Literary Modernism

“Book of Empire” reveals that contrary to what is often suggested by scholars, modernism is not a moment of secularization and declining faith and that the Bible is actually a resource for mounting a radical critique of empire, nation-building, and racial oppression that defies conservative notions supporting those undertakings. For Willa Cather, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston, the Bible is a source of moral authority they use to challenge the imperialist, colonialist, and nativist projects of the twentieth-century U.S. In rebranding the Bible as politically radical, these writers are not denying the authority of the Bible, but are re-appropriating it for their socially dynamic purposes, suggesting that conservatives are not reading the Bible correctly. If they were, they would find critique of empire, nationalism, and racial oppression—elements of a progressive agenda in a text too often enlisted to defend the status quo.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in English

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Hudek, Barry

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jay D. Watson
• Jarod H. Roll
• Jaime L. Harker

• American Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1394

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-2393