Literature and Religious Fundamentalism

The project will lead to not just useful ways in which a trend towards fundamentalism can be diagnosed, and even remedied, but also to a re-engagement with what literature does and, through it, with what the humanities can do. It will re-examine and at times controvert definitions of literature and current critical positions - many of which are dominant in many other fields of the humanities too. This will lead to a redefinition of the nature and purpose of literature and an engagement with such vital and topical matters as the role of the book, the effects of digital reading, the 'death of the author', the notion of 'universality', etc. In short, it will lead to a redefinition of literature qua literature and provide us with tools to tackle fundamentalism.

As this is a study in the field of literary studies, it will concentrate on close reading and contextual and historical exegesis, which it will aim at a series of texts - informed critically by an engagement with the theoretical works by authors ranging from Plato to Roland Barthes, Judith Butler and Byung-Chul Han. Looking at a series of major literary and religious texts, it will examine the similarities and differences between literary and doctrinaire readings, and develop it into a fresh and pertinent definition of literature. The project is intended to lead to a book of around 250 pages.