From X-Files and Left Behind to Fight Club and New Age writing, Stroup and Shuck map out a trajectory of growing cultural cynicism embedded within escape fantasies. Such cultural-political pessimism might still be a minority viewpoint in America, but as a variety of real-world correlatives hint, it could also be "near-term cultural prophecy." Here is provocative and engaged reading at its best. --Robert K. Johnston, Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary

The strength of the volume lies in the popular culture material that the authors cover, much of which still has resonance with undergraduate students... Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students. -- CHOICE

Escape into the Future analyzes the power of pessimism, showing links between present-day religious pessimism and the nihilism of popular culture. Stroup and Shuck rummage through an interesting and eclectic body of pop culture--from Fight Club to X-Files to the Left Behind series--pointing out the presence of pessimistic themes throughout. This volume identifies and illuminates the religious language used in these works to articulate America's need to escape from its present cultural path and, ultimately, provide hope that it might do so.
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Analyses the power of pessimism, showing links between present-day religious pessimism and the nihilism of popular culture. Stroup and Shuck rummage through an interesting and eclectic body of pop culture - from Fight Club to X-Files to the Left Behind series - pointing out the presence of pessimistic themes throughout.
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1. Secret Agents: Visions of Escape, Glimpses of Hope2. Do We Still Want to Believe?: The X-Files and the American Struggle with Progressive Action3. Perhaps Today: The Dialectic of Despair and Activism in Popular Evangelical Literature4. God's Unwanted: Fight Club and the Myth of ""Total Revolution""5. Relocating the American Dream: The Challenges and Ambiguities of Contemporary Cultural Pessimism6. The Quest for a Real-World Correlate Sightings of Cultural Pessimism in the Domains of Scholarship and Journalism7. The Question of Real-World Correlates to Fantasy Processes of Decline: The Deep Structure of Decay, or, Descent into the Engine Room of the RMS TitanicEpilogue-Into the Great Wide Open
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781932792522
Publisert
2007-10-30
Utgiver
Vendor
Baylor University Press
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
333

Om bidragsyterne

John M. Stroup is Harry and Hazel Chavanne Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University.