• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search Menu

The College of Arts & Sciences

Department of Religious Studies

  • Home
  • About
    • Faculty
    • Affiliate Faculty
    • Emeriti Faculty
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • About Bloomington
    • Diversity + Inclusion
  • Undergraduate
    • Religious Studies B.A.
    • Minor
    • Courses
    • Advising
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Scholarships & Awards
    • Student Experience
    • Career Preparation
  • Graduate
    • Religious Studies M.A.
    • Religious Studies Ph.D.
    • Ph.D. Minor
    • Fields of Study
    • Courses
    • Financial Support
    • Awards & Essays
    • Student Experience
    • Career Preparation
    • Job Placement
    • How to Apply
  • Research
    • Research Areas
    • Center for Religion and the Human
    • Resources
    • Selected Publications
  • Alumni & Giving
    • Get Involved
    • Alumni Spotlights
    • Alumni Newsletters
  • News & Events
    • Departmental News
    • Event Calendar
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Student Portal
  • Departmental News
    • News Archive
  • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • News & Events
  • Departmental News
  • 2023-11-garner-aar

Garner Discusses Moby Dick at AAR

Saturday, November 18, 2023

In the Arts, Literature, and Religion unit at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, responding to a prompt that called for the examination of how modern authors rewrite holy scriptures, PhD student David Garner presented a paper entitled “Looming Disorientation: Divine Chaos in Moby-Dick.” The paper argues that, instead of merely combatting theodicy, Melville deploys romantic irony to fuse high and low themes, the divine with chaos, as a response to the death of God in the Romantic period. Melville does this, Garner argues, by rewriting and combining the books of Jonah and Job, and as such, he anticipates modernist James Joyce, who re-wrote another cornerstone of Western literature, The Odyssey.

Department of Religious Studies social media channels

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • Department of Religious Studies

The College of Arts & Sciences

Indiana University

Copyright © 2025 The Trustees of Indiana University

Accessibility | College Scorecard | Privacy Notice

The College of Arts & Sciences

  • About
    • Faculty
    • Affiliate Faculty
    • Emeriti Faculty
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • About Bloomington
    • Diversity + Inclusion
  • Undergraduate
    • Religious Studies B.A.
    • Minor
    • Courses
    • Advising
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Scholarships & Awards
    • Student Experience
    • Career Preparation
      • Career Advising
      • Marketable Skills
  • Graduate
    • Religious Studies M.A.
    • Religious Studies Ph.D.
    • Ph.D. Minor
    • Fields of Study
    • Courses
    • Financial Support
    • Awards & Essays
    • Student Experience
    • Career Preparation
    • Job Placement
    • How to Apply
      • FAQs
  • Research
    • Research Areas
    • Center for Religion and the Human
    • Resources
    • Selected Publications
  • Alumni & Giving
    • Get Involved
    • Alumni Spotlights
    • Alumni Newsletters
  • News & Events
    • Departmental News
      • News Archive
    • Event Calendar
  • Contact
  • Student Portal
    • Undergraduate
      • Religious Studies B.A.
      • Minor
    • Graduate
      • Religious Studies M.A.
      • Religious Studies Ph.D.
      • Ph.D. Minor
    • Courses