UNCIVIL RITES: American Fiction, Religion, and the Public Sphere (Public Express Religion America)

Robert Detweiler explores how religious values are publicly expressed in fiction, drama, and film, and how such discourse influence and shape public values. Integral to Detweiler's close readings is the view that novel as an art form does not represent and reinforce the views and attitudes of the dominant culture, a view that was prominent in the academia, but it constructs particular as opposed to overarching and hegemonic identities. Novel thus becomes a vehicle for expressing the views of a "subaltern counterpublic" and articulates their concerns, identities, and needs.