Domestic faiths, global missions: post-secular science fiction at the millennium

In the late twentieth century, new “post-secular” modes of literary representation emerged that challenged the implicitly Protestant epistemologies of dominant twentieth century American secularism. My dissertation, Domestic Faiths, Global Missions: Post-secular Science Fiction at the Millennium, examines science fiction novels that respond to the religious character of late twentieth century cultural conflicts by constructing “post-secular” narratives that imagine communities of genuinely diverse people on equal political and cultural footing. The novels’ near future setting allows them to examine contemporary problems in systemic contexts but free from the principles of causality demanded by realist novels and political programs. The first half of the dissertation reads novels by astronomer Carl Sagan and evangelists Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye to expose a co-constitutive relationship between conservative Christian fundamentalism and secular scientific materialism. While the novels appear politically opposed, Sagan and Jenkins/LaHaye both articulate global cultural visions based on similar conceptions of a private, rational subject with roots in a white Protestant intellectual tradition. Reading novels by Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood, the second half of my dissertation explores partially religious subjectivities that escape the Protestant-secular binary and expand American secular culture to accommodate alternative religious traditions on a potentially equal basis. Rejecting the simple utopianism of Sagan and Jenkins/LaHaye, the novels imagine interim communities that build slowly toward revitalized public relationships without dramatic revolution.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Morris, David

Contributors dc:contributor

• Koshy, Susan
• Loughran, Patricia
• Ebel, Jonathan H.
• Underwood, Ted

• American Literature
• Contemporary Literature
• 20th Century Literature
• Science Fiction
• Religion
• Secularism
• Post-secularism

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 David Morris

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/32021

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/32021