Prof. Mark Knight (University of Toronto)
Friday, April 19, 3:30-4:30
Armstrong Browning Library (Reception afterward in Seminar Room)
Please join us for this special presentation by Prof. Mark Knight, a leading scholar of religion and literature. Below is a brief abstract of his talk.
Recognizing the struggle of many literary critics to come to terms with the religious elements that confront us in A Tale of Two Cities, this talk argues for the importance of evangelical conversion to the novel’s narrative structure. For Dickens, conversion offered a condensed view of providence that allowed the author to bring disparate parts into a coherent whole. But appropriating the theology of conversion was more difficult than it seemed, and the last part of the talk reflects on what Dickens’s novel tells us about the broader problems of converting religion in the nineteenth-century novel.
Prior to Prof. Knight’s talk on April 19, there will be an informal panel discussion on current directions in the study of religion and literature between Prof. Knight and several members of Baylor’s faculty. We hope you will be able to join us (even though we have to hold the event on Diadeloso!):
“Religion and Literature: Current Directions”
Thursday, April 18, 2:30-3:30, ABL Seminar Room
Dr. Mark Knight, Dr. Luke Ferretter, Dr. Joshua King, Dr. Lisa Shaver, and Dr. Ralph Wood