A Theology of Sense: John Updike, Embodiment, and Late Twentieth-Century American Literature (Literature, Religion, & Postsecular Stud)

Scott Dill’s __A Theology of Sense: John Updike, Embodiment, and Late Twentieth-Century American Literature__ brings together theology, aesthetics, and the body, arguing that Updike, a central figure in post-1945 American literature, deeply embeds in his work questions of the body and the senses with questions of theology. Dill offers new understandings not only of the work of Updike—which is importantly being revisited since the author’s death in 2009—but also new understandings of the relationship between aesthetics, religion, and physical experience. Dill explores Updike’s unique literary legacy in order to argue for a genuinely postsecular theory of aesthetic experience. Each chapter takes up one of the five senses and its relation to broader theoretical concerns: affect, subjectivity, ontology, ethics, and theology. While placing Updike’s work in relation to other late twentieth-century American writers, Dill explains their notions of embodiment and uses them to render a new account of postsecular aesthetics. No other novelist has portrayed mere sense experience as carefully, as extensively, or as theologically—repeatedly turning to the doctrine of creation as his stylistic justification. Across this examination of his many stories, novels, poems, and essays, Dill proves that Updike forces us to reconsider the power of literature to revitalize sense experience as a theological question. A Theology of Sense: John Updike, Embodiment, and Late Twentieth-Century American Literature by Scott Dill Series Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION: A Theology of Sense IN PRAISE OF SUPERFICIALITY ORDO AMORIS THE SENSES OF SENSE CHAPTER 1: Touching WORDS TOUCH ORIENTING TOUCH ARRANGING HANDS CHAPTER 2: Seeing LITTLE PLENITUDES SENSATIONAL RHETORIC THE BEAUTIFUL, THE GOOD, AND THE GIVEN CHAPTER 3: Tasting CREATURELY AESTHETICS GASTRONOMY AND RECONCILIATION CEREMONIES CHAPTER 4: Hearing HARMONY DISSONANCE POLYPHONY CHAPTER 5: Smelling GNOSTIC NOSES FOLLOW YOUR NOSE A HAIRY-NOSTRILLED GOD EPILOGUE: The Aesthetics of Easter ROTTING BODIES RISING BODIES WORKS CITED INDEX "This book renders an original account of postsecular aesthetics, arguing that Updike is a central figure in post-1945 American literature because of how his work deeply embeds questions of the body and the senses with questions of theology"-- Provided by publisher