The Gift of Story

Emily Griesinger is Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.Mark A. Eaton is Associate Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Section 1: The Postmodern Condition 1. Inventing Hope: The Question of Belief in Don DeLillo's Novels, Mark Eaton 2. Voices from Within: Gloria Anzald??a, bell hooks, and Roberta Bondi, Anne-Marie Bowery 3. Time for Hope: The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, Memento, and Twelve Monkeys, D. Brent Laytham 4. Beyond Futility: American Beauty and the Book of Ecclesiastes, Robert K. Johnston Section 2: The Valley of Despair 5. Prosaic Grace: Doris Betts's Souls Raised from the Dead, Martha Greene Eads 6. Narrative Bones: Amy Tan's Bonesetter's Daughter and Hugh Cook's Homecoming Man, Elaine Lux 7. Hope from a Radio: Jurek Becker's Jakob the Liar , Eric Sterling 8. Friendship and Hope: Elie Wiesel's The Town Beyond the Wall, Carole J. Lambert Section 3: Resisting the Night 9. A Passion for the Impossible: Richard Rorty, John Okada, and James Baldwin, Harold K. Bush, Jr. 10. The Prophetic Burden: James Baldwin as a Latter-Day Jeremiah, Kelvin Beliele 11. Reconciliation and Hope: Confessional Narratives in South Africa, Susan Van Zanten Gallagher Section 4: Adversity and Grace 12. Hope in Hard Times: Moments of Epiphany in Illness Narratives, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre 13. Geographies of Hope: Kathleen Norris and David Lynch, Kevin L. Cole 14. Attunement and Healing: The Fisher King, Michael B. Herzog 15. The Gift of Grace: Isak Dinesen's Babette's Feast, Maire Mullins Section 5: Hope and the Imagination 16. The Redress of Imagination: Bernard MacLaverty's Grace Notes, Barry Sloan 17. The Search for ""Deeper Magic"": J. K. Rowling and C. S. Lewis, Emily Griesinger 18. J. R. R. Tolkien: Postmodern Visionary of Hope, Ralph C. Wood Works Cited List of Contributors

The Gift of Story addresses a vital theme--that of Hope--in contemporary fiction, film, and philosophy, focusing on the Christian tradition as a response to the "postmodern" climate of fragmented hopes and fears at the turn of the twenty-first century. The book's essays find surprising expressions of hope in the novels and movies they examine, and are themselves efforts to find and express hope. --Will Katerberg, Calvin College Written from a realistic and well-informed Christian perspective, the authors--whose eyes are open to the tragedies and contradictions of life--make a convincing case that narrative can be a gift, a gift that even engenders hope. The book is incisive, provocative, and heartening. --Stephen T. Davis, Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College