Title Transgression and redemption in American fiction / Thomas J. Ferraro

Edition First edition Published Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020 ©2020

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Description 1 online resource Series Oxford studies in American literary history Oxford studies in American literary history. Contents Introduction: towards a Marian-Catholic pedagogy of American fiction -- Had there been a Papist: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter -- Of lascivious mysticism and other Hibernian matters: Frederic's The Damnation of Theron Ware -- Vouchsafed by the Holy Ghost: Chopin's The Awakening -- Densher's crucifixion -- or a beautiful, beneficent dishonesty?: James' The Wings of the Dove -- Our Lady of Art: Cather's "Coming, Aphrodite!" -- The Carraway confessional: Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby -- No forgiveness in Heaven, no forgetting in Hell: Cather's The Professor's House -- Feast of Our Lady of Desire, Resplendent: Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises Summary "This book considers modern American fiction in its own Italianate coloration: the interplay of sex (the red of passion), violence (the black of violence), and sanctity (the gold of redemption). Its purpose is to involve readers in the mythopoetics of American narrative, long-lived and well overdue, in which Marian Catholicism is seen as integral to apprehending the nexus among eros, grace, and sacrifice in U.S. self-making--especially for Protestants! It starts with Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the primary instigator, as well as with Frederic's ingenious retelling, The Damnation of Theron Ware, a second persisting prism. Sustained revisionist accounts of five major novels and several stories follow, including Chopin's The Awakening, James' The Wings of the Dove, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Cather's The Professor's House, and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Each novel is recalled as a melodrama of beset sexuality and revealed as a martyr tale of forbidden love--successive, self-aware courtings of devotional Catholicism that the critical and teaching establishment has found too mysterious and dangerous to recognize, never mind sanction. In counterpoint, the book illuminates each tale in its own terms, which are often surprising yet almost always common-sensical; it identifies the special senses--beauty, courage, and wisdom--that emerge, often in the face of social terror and moral darkness, under Marian-Catholic pedagogy; and it yields an overview of the mainline of the modern American novel in which sexual transgression (including betrayal) and graced redemption (the sanctification of passion, mediated confession, martyring sacrifice) go hand in hand, syncretically"--Publisher's description Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Online resource; title from web page (Oxford Scholarship Online, viewed on January 8, 2021) SUBJECT Catholic Church. fast (OCoLC)fst00531720 Subject American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism American fiction -- 20th century -- Themes, motives Religion and literature -- History -- 20th century Transgression (Ethics) in literature. Redemption in literature. Novela norteamericana -- s.20 -- Historia y crítica Religión y literatura American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism. Religion and literature -- History -- 20th century. Transgression (Ethics) in literature. Religion and literature. Redemption in literature. American fiction. American fiction -- Themes, motives. Literature. Genre/Form Electronic books History. Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book ISBN 9780191895586 019189558X 9780192608109 019260810X 9780192608116 0192608118

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