Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Religion, and the Search for Grace

Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Religion, and the Search for Grace explores selected texts by four major American authors: Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sojourner Truth, and Kate Chopin. This monograph presents a nuanced analysis of the relationship between these authors and religion. While they critique organized religion and challenge the premise of doctrine and the restrictiveness of religious practice, they also depict mercy, redemption, and renewal beyond church walls—offering a lens for considering the American sociopolitical identity. In this study, Ostman relies on the parables of Jesus as a compelling tool to frame these authors’ religious visions, which drew their sense of hope from loss and brokenness. She highlights the remarkable timeline in which the four writers depicted these visions of hope, shared during the years leading up to and through the Civil War (1861–1865). At a time when many other authors made comparisons to the Apocalypse, Whitman, Hawthorne, Truth, and Chopin evinced visions of hope through new religious interpretations. This volume is a valuable resource for postgraduate students and scholars of American literature, religious studies, and Christian thought.