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Readers will be ushered into their own spiritual experience of literature as they consider how American writers craft images of God that affirm the aging process. In deploying the motif of the
imago Dei, it establishes that literature reveals how spirituality influences experiences of aging and how aging itself is a spiritual process
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Credits Page
Introduction
1. The Gift of Old Age and Flannery O'Connor's Theophanies
2. Religious Beautification and Going Gray in Flannery O'Connor's "A Stroke of Good Fortune"
3. Orphanhood and Spiritual Development: Exploring Intergenerational Loss and Conflict in Joyce Carol Oates' Fiction
4. The Image of the Aging Jewish Woman As Vessel in Alicia Suskin Ostriker's Late Poetry
5. Aging, Race, and Divine Embodiment in Lucille Clifton's Poetry
6. Aging, Desire, and Marian Theology In Mary Szybist's
Incarnadine7. A Feminist Pentecostal Perspective of Aging: Reflecting the Holy Spirit in Anne Babson's
Messiah and
Polite Occasions8. Coda: Observations on Attachment Theory, Gerotranscendence, and Late American Women's Spiritual Literature
Index
About the author
Scarlett Cunningham works in the education and nonprofit sectors at the intersections of literary studies, theology, and social work. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Women's Studies and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Alabama and her doctorate in English from the University of Mississippi, with specialties in American Literature, aging, gender, and religion. She has taught at several state and faith-based institutions across the United States, where her offerings have included courses on writing, American Literature, Women's Studies, body image in literature, and religion in literature.
Summary
Readers will be ushered into their own spiritual experience of literature as they consider how American writers craft images of God that affirm the aging process. In deploying the motif of the imago Dei, it establishes that literature reveals how spirituality influences experiences of aging and how aging itself is a spiritual process
