The postmodern sacred : popular culture spirituality in the science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy genres /

"This volume examines pop-culture spirituality, or "postmodern sacred," showing how consumers use the symbols contained in explicitly "unreal" texts to gain a second-hand experience of transcendence and belief. It shows how today's pervasive, saturated media culture has...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	McAvan, Emily
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Jefferson, NC : McFarland & Company, [2012]
Subjects:	Fantasy literature > History and criticism. Spirituality in literature. Popular culture > Religious aspects. Postmodernism > Religious aspects. Christianity in literature. Mass media > Religious aspects. Fantasy literature. Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Table of Contents:

The return of the religious and the postmodern sacred
The postmodern sacred
Virtual religion: techniques of the postmodern sacred
"Something up there": transcendental gesturing in new age-influenced texts
Of gods and monsters: metaphor and the postmodern sacred
Buffy and Xena: polytheisms on-screen
Whither Leonardo Da Vinci? new age gnosticism
Christ figures and the messianic in The lord of the rings
The cultural logic of postmodern Christianity: the Christian right and popular culture
The Islamic other and SFF responses to 9/11
Good, evil and ethics: morality and all that stuff
Conclusion: Is there an outside to capital?