Date of Award
1-1-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in English
Department
English
First Advisor
Jay D. Watson
Second Advisor
Jarod H. Roll
Third Advisor
Jaime L. Harker
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
“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.
Recommended Citation
Hudek, Barry, "Book of Empire: The Political Bible of U.S. Literary Modernism" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1394.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1394