Norman W. Jones
· Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education and ProfessorOhio State University · English
Active 1976–2018
About
Norman W. Jones is a Professor in the Department of English at The Ohio State University and serves as Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education. He holds a PhD in English from the University of California – Los Angeles, earned in 2002, along with an MA from UCLA and a BA in Humanities from Yale University. His teaching focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature, the Bible, and film. His scholarly work includes authoring books such as Provincializing the Bible: Faulkner and Postsecular American Literature, The Bible and Literature: The Basics, and Gay and Lesbian Historical Fiction: Sexual Mystery and Post-Secular Narrative. He is also a co-editor of The King James Bible after 400 Years: Literary, Linguistic and Cultural Influences. His essays and reviews have been published in various academic journals including American Literary History Online Review, American Literature, Christianity & Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, and Studies in American Fiction. His research interests encompass twentieth-century British and American literature, gender and sexuality studies, and the intersection of the Bible with literature.
Research topics
- Art
- Literature
- History
- Sociology
- Philosophy
Selected publications
The Bible as Ghost in Faulkner’s Novels
2018-01-29
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2018-01-29
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2018-01-29
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2018-01-29 · 1 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingWhy, in our supposedly secular age, does the Bible feature prominently in so many influential and innovative works of contemporary U.S. literature? More pointedly, why would a book indelibly allied with a long history of institutionalized oppressions play a supporting role—and not simply as an object of critique—in a wide variety of landmark literary representations of marginalized subjectivities? The answers to these questions go beyond mere playful re-appropriations or subversive resignifications of biblical themes, figures, and forms. This book shows how certain contemporary authors invoke the Bible in ways that undermine clear distinctions between "subversive" and "traditional"—indeed, that undermine clear distinctions between "secular" and "sacred." By tracing a key source of such complex literary invocations of the Bible back to William Faulkner’s major novels, Provincializing the Bible argues that these literary works, which might be termed postsecular, ironically provincialize the Bible as a means of reevaluating and revalorizing its significance in contemporary American culture.
Eggshell Shibboleths as Intertextual Marginalization
2018-01-29
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2018-01-29
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingProvincializing the Bible: Faulkner and Postsecular American Literature
2018-01-29
bookOpen access1st authorCorrespondingWhy, in our supposedly age, does the Bible feature prominently in so many influential and innovative works of contemporary U.S. literature? More pointedly, why would a book indelibly allied with a long history of institutionalized oppressions play a supporting role—and not simply as an object of critique—in a wide variety of landmark literary representations of marginalized subjectivities? The answers to these questions go beyond mere playful re-appropriations or resignifications of biblical themes, figures, and forms. This book shows how certain contemporary authors invoke the Bible in ways that undermine clear distinctions between subversive and traditional—indeed, that undermine clear distinctions between secular and sacred. By tracing a key source of such complex literary invocations of the Bible back to William Faulkner’s major novels, Provincializing the Bible argues that these literary works, which might be termed postsecular, ironically provincialize the Bible as a means of reevaluating and revalorizing its significance in contemporary American culture.
Angelica Duran, <i>The King James Bible across Borders and Centuries</i>
Christianity & Literature · 2018-08-21
article1st authorCorrespondingPostsecular Reading as Eucharistically Queer
2018-01-29
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2018-01-01
articleSenior author
Frequent coauthors
- 3 shared
Hannibal Hamlin
- 1 shared
Robert Davies
- 1 shared
Jacques Nusbaumer
- 1 shared
Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez
- 1 shared
Patricia Demers
University of Alberta
- 1 shared
Kim Hixson
- 1 shared
Melanie C. Green
University at Buffalo, State University of New York
- 1 shared
Philip J. Mazzocco
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