The Bible and Literature: The Basics provides an interpretive framework for understanding the significance of biblical allusions in literature-even for readers who have little prior knowledge of the Bible. In doing so, it surveys the Bible's influence on a broad range of English, American, and other Anglophone literatures from a variety of historical periods. It also: offers a "greatest hits" tour of the Bible focuses as much on 20th- and 21st-century literatures as on earlier periods addresses the Bible's relevance to contemporary issues in literary criticism such as poststructuralist, postcolonial, feminist, queer, and narrative theories includes discussion questions for each chapter and annotated suggestions for further reading This book explains why readers need a basic knowledge of the Bible in order to understand and appreciate key aspects of Anglophone literary traditions.

The Bible and Literature: The Basics provides an interpretive framework for understanding the significance of biblical allusions in literature—even for readers who have little prior knowledge of the Bible. In doing so, it surveys the Bible’s influence on a broad range of English, American, and other Anglophone literatures from a variety of historical periods. It also:

offers a "greatest hits" tour of the Bible

focuses as much on 20th- and 21st-century literatures as on earlier periods

addresses the Bible’s relevance to contemporary issues in literary criticism such as poststructuralist, postcolonial, feminist, queer, and narrative theories

includes discussion questions for each chapter and annotated suggestions for further reading

This book explains why readers need a basic knowledge of the Bible in order to understand and appreciate key aspects of Anglophone literary traditions.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Bible as Witness to the Power of Stories

Chapter 1. Wrestling with God: The Bible as an Untellable Tale

Chapter 2. Friends, Family, and Lovers: A Familiar God

Chapter 3. Crime and Punishment

Chapter 4. Unexpected Heroes and Miraculous Recreations

Chapter 5. The Words and Their Afterlives

Conclusion: A Secular Age?

A Note on English Bible Translations

Online Resources

Additional Secondary Sources

Index

2011 marked the 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible. No other book has been as vital to the development of English writing or indeed to the English language itself. This major collection of essays is the most complete one-volume exploration of the King James Bible and its influence to date. The chapters are written by leading scholars from a range of disciplines, who examine the creation of the King James Bible as a work of translation and as a linguistic and literary accomplishment. They consider how it differed from the Bible versions which preceded it, and assess its broad cultural impact and precise literary influence over the centuries of writing which followed, in English and American literature, until today. The story will fascinate readers who approach the King James Bible from the perspectives of literary, linguistic, religious or cultural history.