Abstract
In his exploration of the postsecular novel, Partial Faiths, John McClure argues that the characters in contemporary Native American fiction, who are usually “ontologically and culturally unhoused”, typically undergo a difficult and dangerous return to their culture, tradition, and religion. McClure examines two novels from Louise Erdrich’s expansive corpus of fiction and concludes that her work does not include such characters; instead, he argues, “her works project a comedic vision of partial and impure returning”. This essay will illustrate how adding just one more novel to the analysis – The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse – necessitates a reconsideration, even revision, of the position of Erdrich’s fiction within McClure’s definition of postsecular literature. For by thematizing Catholic and Native American beliefs and practices, Last Report manages to confirm aspects of the postmodern condition whilst defying the understanding of postsecular faith as an impartial return to a weakened form of belief or tradition. In addition, by exploring the entangled, often fraught, relationship between Ojibwe animism and Catholicism, Erdrich exposes the key, enduring, and ultimately shared tenets of these two belief systems.
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© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Overcoming Perpetual Estrangement in Persuasion’s Heterotopia
- Louis MacNeices Autumn Journal als Zeitzeugnis des Krisenherbstes 1938
- Tapestries of Contradiction: A Poststructural Analysis of Lessing’s Martha Quest
- ‘Waywardness’: J. M. Coetzee and the Ethos of Authenticity
- Return of the (non-)Native: Coming Home in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
- Losing One’s Illusions: Affective Sense-Making in Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton and the Popular Media
- Spying in Gagool’s Cave: James Bond’s Colonial Adventures
- Reviews
- Donka Minkova. A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, xv + 424 pp., £ 24.99 (pb)/£ 70.00 (hb).
- Maria Sutor. Non-native Speech in English Literature. Sprach- und Literatur-wissenschaften 51. München: Utz, 2015, x + 310 pp., 8 illustr., € 49.00.
- Sara M. Pons-Sanz. The Language of Early English Literature: From Cædmon to Milton. Perspectives on the English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xviii + 278 pp., £ 22.99.
- John D. Niles. The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066–1901: Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, xvii + 425 pp., 55 figures, £ 60.00/€ 81.00.
- M. J. Toswell. The Anglo-Saxon Psalter. Medieval Church Studies 10. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014, xvi + 454 pp., 21 figures, € 100.00.
- Judith Kaup. The Old English Judith: A Study of Poetic Style, Theological Tradition, and Anglo-Saxon Christian Concepts. With a Foreword by Hugh Magennis. Lewiston, NY/Queenston, ON/Lampeter: Mellen, 2013, ix + 412 pp., $ 159.95 (hb)/$ 49.95 (pb).
- David Greer. Manuscript Inscriptions in Early English Printed Music. Music and Material Culture Series. Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015, xv + 206 pp., 36 figures, 8 tables, 84 music examples, £ 60.00.
- Christiane Maria Binder. From Innocence to Experience: (Re-)Constructions of Childhood in Victorian Women’s Autobiography. Schriftenreihe Literaturwissenschaft 90. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2014, 412 pp., € 45.00.
- Stephan Karschay. Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, ix + 295 pp., £ 60.00.
- Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren (eds.). The Modernist World. London: Routledge, 2015, 650 pp., € 125.95.
- J. Hillis Miller. Communities in Fiction. Fordham: Fordham University Press, 2015, xiii + 333 pp., 12 illustr., $ 30.00.
- Jeff Thoss. When Storyworlds Collide: Metalepsis in Popular Fiction, Film and Comics. Studies in Intermediality 7. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi, 2015, ix + 194 pp., 34 figures, € 55.00/$ 71.00.
- Ulf Schulenberg. Romanticism and Pragmatism: Richard Rorty and the Idea of a Poeticized Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, vii + 251 pp., € 83.19/$ 95.00.
- Kate Rigby. Dancing with Disaster: Environmental Histories, Narratives, and Ethics for Perilous Times. Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, x + 225 pp., $ 24.50.
- Christine Marks. “I am because you are”: Relationality in the Works of Siri Hustvedt. American Studies – A Monograph Series 244. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 234 pp., € 40.00.
- Books Received
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Overcoming Perpetual Estrangement in Persuasion’s Heterotopia
- Louis MacNeices Autumn Journal als Zeitzeugnis des Krisenherbstes 1938
- Tapestries of Contradiction: A Poststructural Analysis of Lessing’s Martha Quest
- ‘Waywardness’: J. M. Coetzee and the Ethos of Authenticity
- Return of the (non-)Native: Coming Home in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
- Losing One’s Illusions: Affective Sense-Making in Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton and the Popular Media
- Spying in Gagool’s Cave: James Bond’s Colonial Adventures
- Reviews
- Donka Minkova. A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, xv + 424 pp., £ 24.99 (pb)/£ 70.00 (hb).
- Maria Sutor. Non-native Speech in English Literature. Sprach- und Literatur-wissenschaften 51. München: Utz, 2015, x + 310 pp., 8 illustr., € 49.00.
- Sara M. Pons-Sanz. The Language of Early English Literature: From Cædmon to Milton. Perspectives on the English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xviii + 278 pp., £ 22.99.
- John D. Niles. The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066–1901: Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, xvii + 425 pp., 55 figures, £ 60.00/€ 81.00.
- M. J. Toswell. The Anglo-Saxon Psalter. Medieval Church Studies 10. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014, xvi + 454 pp., 21 figures, € 100.00.
- Judith Kaup. The Old English Judith: A Study of Poetic Style, Theological Tradition, and Anglo-Saxon Christian Concepts. With a Foreword by Hugh Magennis. Lewiston, NY/Queenston, ON/Lampeter: Mellen, 2013, ix + 412 pp., $ 159.95 (hb)/$ 49.95 (pb).
- David Greer. Manuscript Inscriptions in Early English Printed Music. Music and Material Culture Series. Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015, xv + 206 pp., 36 figures, 8 tables, 84 music examples, £ 60.00.
- Christiane Maria Binder. From Innocence to Experience: (Re-)Constructions of Childhood in Victorian Women’s Autobiography. Schriftenreihe Literaturwissenschaft 90. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2014, 412 pp., € 45.00.
- Stephan Karschay. Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, ix + 295 pp., £ 60.00.
- Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren (eds.). The Modernist World. London: Routledge, 2015, 650 pp., € 125.95.
- J. Hillis Miller. Communities in Fiction. Fordham: Fordham University Press, 2015, xiii + 333 pp., 12 illustr., $ 30.00.
- Jeff Thoss. When Storyworlds Collide: Metalepsis in Popular Fiction, Film and Comics. Studies in Intermediality 7. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi, 2015, ix + 194 pp., 34 figures, € 55.00/$ 71.00.
- Ulf Schulenberg. Romanticism and Pragmatism: Richard Rorty and the Idea of a Poeticized Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, vii + 251 pp., € 83.19/$ 95.00.
- Kate Rigby. Dancing with Disaster: Environmental Histories, Narratives, and Ethics for Perilous Times. Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, x + 225 pp., $ 24.50.
- Christine Marks. “I am because you are”: Relationality in the Works of Siri Hustvedt. American Studies – A Monograph Series 244. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 234 pp., € 40.00.
- Books Received