Home“Little Wilson and Big God” Anthony Burgess, Religion and the Sacred
“Little Wilson and Big God” Anthony Burgess, Religion and the Sacred
« Little Wilson and Big God » : la religion et le sacré chez Anthony Burgess
Published on Wednesday, October 04, 2017
Abstract
Anthony Burgess always described himself as a “renegade Catholic” and it is not easy to define the exact metaphysical or theological content of the religious beliefs which he actually managed to preserve. What is certain, however, is that he never rejected the cultural dimension of his Catholic education. Neither did he stop giving it an important role in the constitution of his social identity, particularly in the Protestant context of the Manchester of his childhood. Besides, even though his autobiography has a strong parodic dimension, he immediately put it under the aegis of St Augustine’s Confessions, the Catholicism of Enderby’s hero being also one of the main features of this narrative.
Announcement
Argument
Anthony Burgess always described himself as a “renegade Catholic” and it is not easy to define the exact metaphysical or theological content of the religious beliefs which he actually managed to preserve. What is certain, however, is that he never rejected the cultural dimension of his Catholic education. Neither did he stop giving it an important role in the constitution of his social identity, particularly in the Protestant context of the Manchester of his childhood. Besides, even though his autobiography has a strong parodic dimension, he immediately put it under the aegis of St Augustine’s Confessions, the Catholicism of Enderby’s hero being also one of the main features of this narrative. He also questioned a possible preservation -- or replacement – of religious beliefs in a more and more dechristianized world, and expressed some concern about the secularization of ethics in a post-theological context and about the recycling of originally mythical or religious heuristic schemes in his literary practices. To what extent can Anthony Burgess be considered as a Catholic writer? Should he be perceived as an apostate, as is often suggested in his writings, or should his conceptions of secularization be considered as having anticipated some of the interrogations that we still have to face in our post-secular world? Here are some dimensions of Burgess’s writings that could be explored in this conference.
Submission guidelines
Abstracts of up to 250 words, accompanied by a short biographical note, including research interests and university affiliation, are to be submitted via email to: Jean-Michel Yvard jean-michel.yvard@univ-angers.fr (University of Angers, France),
by October 15, 2017.
Scientific committee
- Jean-Michel Yvard : Université d’Angers, CIRPaLL
- Emmanuel Vernadakis : Université d’Angers, CIRPaLL
- Marc Jeannin : Université d’Angers, CIRPaLL
- Gelareh Yvard : Université d'Angers, CIRPaLL
- Andrew Biswell : University of Manchester
Subjects
- Modern (Main category)
- Mind and language > Language > Literature
Places
- Angers, France (49)
Date(s)
- Sunday, October 15, 2017
Keywords
- Burgess, religion, sacré
Contact(s)
- Jean-Michel Yvard
courriel : jean-michel [dot] yvard [at] univ-angers [dot] fr
Information source
- Stéphanie Bouvier
courriel : stephanie [dot] bouvier [at] univ-angers [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« “Little Wilson and Big God” Anthony Burgess, Religion and the Sacred », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, October 04, 2017, https://doi.org/10.58079/yfm
