Hemingway and Agamben
Finding Religion Without God
Published on 1. August 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-3995-1679-2 (ISBN)
Description
Marcos Antonio Norris implements Giorgio Agamben's notion of 'secularized theism' to resolve a critical disagreement among Hemingway scholars who have portrayed the writer as either a Roman Catholic or a secular existentialist. He argues that Hemingway is, properly speaking, neither a secularist nor a theist, but a 'secularised theist', whose 'religion' is practiced through sovereign decision making, which, in its most extreme form, includes the act of killing. This book resolves an important debate in Hemingway studies and uncovers fundamental similarities between theism and atheism, building upon the theoretical undertaking first introduced by Agamben and the Existentialists (EUP, 2021). Bringing Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Paul Sartre and Giorgio Agamben into close conversation, the author reconceptualises existentialism, issues a posthumanist critique of moral authoritarianism and advances an original interpretation of Hemingway as a secularised theist.
Reviews / Votes
Norris uses Agamben to offer a very welcome and original response to a long-standing critical impasse. Smart, insightful, and persuasive, this study ranges widely across Hemingway's work and has important implications for how we understand Hemingway's treatment of religion, the sovereign individual, gender, morality, and the human/animal divide. -- Carl Eby, President of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and SocietyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-1679-2 (9781399516792)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Marcos Antonio Norris is a lecturer in the School of Writing, Literature and Film at Oregon State University. He is the author of Hemingway and Agamben: Finding Religion Without God (2023) and the co-editor of Agamben and the Existentialists (2021). Norris has authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles, most recently including 'Reading 'On the Quai at Smyrna' and 'A Natural History of the Dead' in Consideration of Hemingway's Anti-Humanism' with The Hemingway Review and 'Francis Macomber, the Matador: Reading Hemingway's 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' with Studies in the American Short Story.
Content
PART I: HEMINGWAY, SARTRE, AND THE SECULAR
An Introduction
A Word on Secularization
Hemingway as Religious Believer
Sartre as Religious Believer
Returning to Hemingway
Book Summary
PART II: SOVEREIGN DECISIONISM AND THE IMAGO DEI
The Failed Atheism of Jean-Paul Sartre
The Biographical Origins of Sartre's Failed Atheism
Agamben and the Creation of Mankind
Looking at Sartre Through Agamben's Eyes
Hemingway's Youth as an Oak Park Congregationalist
A Change in Hemingway's Religious Temperament
Hemingway the Existentialist
Hemingway the Catholic
Hemingway the Un/Believer
PART III: THE PROBLEM WITH HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM
Approaching the Masculine in Hemingway's Fiction
On the Quai at Smyrna
Death in the Afternoon
Hemingway's Stance on Animal Equality
PART IV: HEMINGWAY'S MASCULINE HERO
There Are No Happy Endings
On the Use of Ritual
Suicide as Cowardice
The Faena, Or Becoming Like God
The Masculine, Existential Hero
Cause for Question in Hemingway's Posthumous Works
Conclusion: The Death of God, The Death of Man
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
An Introduction
A Word on Secularization
Hemingway as Religious Believer
Sartre as Religious Believer
Returning to Hemingway
Book Summary
PART II: SOVEREIGN DECISIONISM AND THE IMAGO DEI
The Failed Atheism of Jean-Paul Sartre
The Biographical Origins of Sartre's Failed Atheism
Agamben and the Creation of Mankind
Looking at Sartre Through Agamben's Eyes
Hemingway's Youth as an Oak Park Congregationalist
A Change in Hemingway's Religious Temperament
Hemingway the Existentialist
Hemingway the Catholic
Hemingway the Un/Believer
PART III: THE PROBLEM WITH HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM
Approaching the Masculine in Hemingway's Fiction
On the Quai at Smyrna
Death in the Afternoon
Hemingway's Stance on Animal Equality
PART IV: HEMINGWAY'S MASCULINE HERO
There Are No Happy Endings
On the Use of Ritual
Suicide as Cowardice
The Faena, Or Becoming Like God
The Masculine, Existential Hero
Cause for Question in Hemingway's Posthumous Works
Conclusion: The Death of God, The Death of Man
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX