Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred - Softcover

Santana, Richard W.; Erickson, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786435534 ISBN 13: 9780786435531

Publisher: McFarland & Co, 2008

Synopsis

The United States is the world's primary creator and exporter of popular mass culture and arguably one of the most religious countries in modern history. As a result, the tense coexistence of American religion with popular culture has created a fertile yet caustic compound which generates new religious belief structures, new texts, and new worldviews that are uniquely American.This work considers ways in which American cultural products such as television, advertising, music, and video games have played a significant role in creating, representing, and influencing contradictory religious identities. The authors examine three distinct segments of popular culture that 'rescript the sacred,' including popular religious texts (e.g. the ""Left Behind"" series of books and the Christian fantasy novels of Frank Peretti), secular works that nonetheless reflect and influence popular religions (e.g. ""The Simpsons"" and ""South Park""), and works that contain a central element of religious content but no clear didactic intent (e.g. ""The Da Vinci Code"" and ""Joan of Arcadia"").

About this title

About the Author

Richard Santana is assistant professor of English at the Rochester Institute of Technology and director of literary and cultural studies. He lives in Lyons, New York. Gregory Erickson teaches world literature and writing at Mannes College and New York University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: McFarland & Co
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786435534
• ISBN 13: 9780786435531
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 231