The Postsecular Restoration and the Making of Literary Conservatism

Corrinne Harol's book explores the synergy between postsecularity and the modern literary sphere, arguing that conservative writers have influenced literary forms and practices such as fiction, mental freedom, worlding, reading, narration, and historical fiction. It challenges the overreliance on the secularization narrative and models how a postsecular approach can help us understand the period and secularization more fully.

Format: Hardback
Length: 252 pages
Publication date: 22 December 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

This book explores a fascinating interplay between postsecularity, a critical examination of emerging liberal secular ideals and practices, and the contemporary literary landscape. Corrinne Harol makes a bold and compelling argument that influential literary forms and practices, such as fiction, mental freedom, worlding, reading, narration, and historical fiction, have their roots in the responses of conservative writers to secularization. By interrogating a range of concepts central to secular culture, including faith, indulgence, figuration, reading, passivity, revolution, and nostalgia, this study engages with the works of notable authors such as Aphra Behn, John Dryden, Margaret Cavendish, and Walter Scott, as well as delving into the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and Edmund Burke.

In contrast to the prevailing focus on secularization in eighteenth-century studies, this book offers a fresh perspective by modeling how a postsecular approach can enhance our understanding of this historical period and secularization itself. By delving into the complex interplay between religion, politics, and culture, this book provides a valuable contribution to the study of literature and society in the late eighteenth century.

ISBN-13: 9781009273480