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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.
E-Book Content
A Theology of Sense John Updike, Embodiment, and Late Twentieth-Century American Literature Scott Dill L I T E R AT U R E , R E L I G I O N , A N D P O S T S E C U L A R S T U D I E S Lori Branch, Series Editor A THEOLOGY OF SE NSE John Updike, Embodiment, and Late Twentieth-Century American Literature SCOTT DILL T H E O H I O S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S C O LU M B U S Copyright © 2018 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog. loc.gov Cover image: Barracoon (c) PacificSunTradingCompany. Courtesy of Warren Adelson and Frank E. Fowler. Cover design by Angela Moody Text design by Juliet Williams Type set in Adobe Minion Pro eISBN 978-0-8142-7660-0 eISBN 978-0-8142-7659-4 for Janette CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Preface xi INTRODUC TION A Theology of Sense 1 CHAPTER 1 Touching 31 CHAPTER 2 Seeing 61 CHAPTER 3 Tasting 91 CHAPTER 4 Hearing 119 CHAPTER 5 Smelling 149 EPILOGUE The Aesthetics of Easter 173 Works Cited 187 Index 195 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS to everyone who helped me with this book along the way. Mark Eaton and James Schiff provided much-needed encouragement and thoughtful advice from start to finish. Lindsay Martin and Kristen Elias Rowley smoothly guided the process of getting it into print. Michelle Bard suggested significant changes to the introduction. Mark Pruitt, Matthew Phelps, Brian Hollan, Scott Waalkes, Jim Brownlee, Steve Jenson, Jay Case, Jacci Welling, David Beer, Steve Pinkerton, Brie Parkin, Ray Horton, and Daniel Luttrull all offered helpful feedback on different chapters. Peter Whiting and the SAGES program at Case Western Reserve University gave helpful support and funding. Some parts of this book first appeared in different versions elsewhere. Portions of the introduction and chapter 1 appeared online at Books & Culture and in Critique (54, no. 4, 2013); a significantly altered version of chapter 2 in The John Updike Review (4.2 2016); and a version of chapter 3 in Religion & Literature (48, no. 3, 2016). A special note of gratitude to Janette Dil