Category Archives: Mormon LitCrit

Agency, Influence, Accountability, and the Mormon Artist

Since last Friday’s mass-shooting at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, fingers have pointed in many directions. In a New York Times op-ed, for example, film critic Roger Ebert joins others in blaming the gun lobby and “paranoid … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, The Writer's Desk | Tagged , , | 80 Comments

In Tents # 18 Pilate’s Trial before Jesus Part 4

In 1979, shortly before the end of my mission my father sent me a letter saying that the bishop of the BYU 29th ward, which he had been serving as high councilor, was being released and the high councilor called. … Continue reading

Posted in Literary Views of Scripture, Mormon LitCrit, Personal Narratives | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

in verse # 18 : a monstrous fable

Like many a medieval manuscript, Piers the plowman has no title as such.  Walter W. Skeat, who gave it that title, notes, however, that, in the manuscript he used as the basis for his Oxford edition, “we find here [in … Continue reading

Posted in In Verse, Mormon LitCrit, The Past through Literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Mormon LitCrit: Do We Need New Mormon Literary Theory?

“There is always a surprise in store for the anatomy or physiology of any criticism that might think it has mastered the game, surveyed all the threads at once, deluding itself, too, in wanting to look at the text without … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments

“It is the Myth that Gives Life”: C.S. Lewis and the True Myth

Note: I will be presenting this at the Springville Library this Thursday at 7pm, so if you’re interested in coming, don’t read this and come hear it instead. Hopefully, I’ll be even more interesting in person. Many people do not … Continue reading

Posted in Community Voices, Mormon LitCrit | Tagged | 6 Comments

Book Reviews on the Internet: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Recently, a discussion cropped up in the comments section on a book review posted on another blog. The commenter noted that both the person reviewing the book, along with the other commenters, were generally heaping praise on the book while … Continue reading

Posted in Community Voices, Electronic Age, Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Utopian Spaces and Mormon Fiction

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a “Utopia” as “[a] place, state, or condition ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.”  The original terms, of course, derives from Sir Thomas More’s 1516 book, Utopia, which describes how such a place would … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Mormon Lit and Other Nineteenth-Century Religions’ Lit

Many of our recurring discussions about Mormon Lit try to measure how the field is doing and how it is likely to do within our lifetimes. We return again and again to the economics of literature written for Mormons, to … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | 18 Comments

Mormon Authors writing Non-Mormon Inspirational Fiction

Over at Motley Vision, Jonathan Langford reviewed his reading of Whitney finalists. In his review of the General Fiction category , he noted that few of the finalists engaged with religious issues, and only one book was explicitly Mormon at all. I … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Teaching Mormon Literature to Non-Mormon Students

As I type I am sitting in the Salt Lake Airport waiting for a flight that will take me first to Denver and then to Dayton, where my decade-old Honda is waiting to take me home. It’s Sunday, but there … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Thoughts on Language | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments