This collection examines the ways in which religion and literature are capable of renewing what the eminent German philosopher Jürgen Habermas refers to as 'the public sphere'. The essays range from close commentaries on particular texts ( King Lear, The Brothers Karamazov, 'Bartleby the Scrivener') to surveys of the careers of selected writers who have entered the public sphere (Elizabeth Gaskell, W.H. Auden, Raymond Carver, Sherman Alexie), to historical and theoretical examinations of various national and international public spheres.

Autorentext

LIONEL BASNEY English Department, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan JANET L. BLUMBERG English Department, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle JAMES W. CHAMPION English Department, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle PAUL J. CONTINO Christ College, Valparaiso University, Indiana GLENN FETZER French Department, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan ALAN JACOBS English Department, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois COLIN JAGER Ph.D. Student in English, University of Michigan PAMELA CORPRON PARKER English Department, Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington MICHAEL VANDER WEELE English Department, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Illinois CLARENCE P. WALHOUT formerly English Department, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan LAMBERT ZUIDERVAART Philosophy Department, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Inhalt

Preface Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: The Public Mouse; M.D.Walhout Enacting the Bonds of Love in King Lear ; L.Basney Dostoevsky and the Prisoner; P.Contino Unmasking the Idol of the Market in 'Bartleby'; C.Walhout Constructing Female Public Identity: Gaskell and Brontë; P.C.Parker Auden and the Dream of Public Poetry; A.Jacobs Narrative Labour in Raymond Carver; M.V.Weele Sherman Alexie: Walking with Skeletons; J.Blumberg Denis Johnson's Strange Light; J.Champion The Fate of French Poetry; G.Fetzer Woza South Africa! A Postcolonial Public Sphere; S.V.Gallagher Covering Rushdie: Edward Said and Religion; M.D.Walhout Creative Border Crossing in New Public Culture; L.Zuidervaart Storytelling, Suffering and the Public Sphere ; C.Jager Index