Activism and the Literary Self in 20th- And 21st-Century Literature - (New Directions in Religion and Literature) by Jeffrey F Keuss (Paperback)

About the Book

Provides new insights into constructive activism by showing how literature can operate as a 'poetics of justice' through which moral and ethical life can be better understood and animated in the 21st Century.

Book Synopsis

Exploring how Shusaku Endo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thomas Merton, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, and Octavia E. Butler engage with social justice and activism, this book explores the significant role that literature plays in the formation of justice.

Jeff Keuss foregrounds literature and the role of poetics as both a method and a frame by which justice can not only be understood but uniquely positioned to transform and redeem the moral call on individuals in ways that some recent philosophical and ethical projects do not. He examines how these authors are representative of a theme in literature which is the "turn to justice" as a literary form and discusses how these authors' engagement with activism challenges isolated and anxious models of contemporary selfhood.

Demonstrating how these writers utilize fiction, across different contexts of race, gender, culture, and theological denominations, to present themes of justice in communion with others, Keuss provides new insights into "communal selfhood" and shows how we can use this idea to shape our ideas of ethics, morality, activism, and justice.

About the Author

Jeffrey F. Keuss (PhD Glasgow, ALM Harvard) is Professor of Christian Ministry, Theology, and Culture at Seattle Pacific University, USA and on the editorial board of Literature and Theology.