American Catholic literature emerged in the early 1900s as its own genre. Catholic literature is not exclusively literature written by Catholic authors or about Catholic things, but rather Catholic literature is "defined ..by a particular Catholic perspective applied to its subject matter."Reichardt, Mary R. Introduction. Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature. Vol. 1. Westport, Conn. u.a.: Greenwood, 2004. Print.

Definition

"...Catholic imaginative literature—fiction, poetry, drama, and memoir—not theological, scholarly, or devotional writing. Surprisingly little Catholic imaginative literature is explicitly religious; even less is devotional. Most of it touches on religious themes indirectly while addressing other subjects—not sacred topics but profane ones, such as love, war, family, violence, sex, mortality, money, and power. What makes the writing Catholic is that the treatment of these subjects is permeated with a particular worldview." Gioia, Dana. "The Catholic Writer Today", ''First Things'', December 2013
/ref> Professor

Dana Gioia Michael Dana Gioia (; born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Since the early 1980s, Gioia has been considered part of the literary movements within American poetry known as New Formalis ...

mentions various types of Catholic writers: practicing Catholics, and cultural Catholics, "writers who were raised in the faith and often educated in Catholic schools. Cultural Catholics usually made no dramatic exit from the Church but instead gradually drifted away." There are also writers who have converted to Catholicism. A separate group are "...anti-Catholic Catholics, writers who have broken with the Church but remain obsessed with its failings and injustices, both genuine and imaginary." The latter are not, strictly speaking, "Catholic writers", having rejected traditional Catholic viewpoints and practices. According to editor Joshua Hren, "Catholic writers tend to see humanity struggling in a fallen world. They combine a longing for grace and redemption with a deep sense of human imperfection and sin. Evil exists, but the physical world is not evil. Nature is sacramental, shimmering with signs of sacred things. Indeed, all reality is mysteriously charged with the invisible presence of God. Catholics perceive suffering as redemptive, at least when borne in emulation of Christ's passion and death."

History

Orestes Brownson Orestes Augustus Brownson (September 16, 1803 – April 17, 1876) was an American intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer. Brownson was a publicist, a career which spanned his affiliation with ...

converted from

Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

to Catholicism in 1844; his views held much in common with the

Liberal Catholicism Liberal Catholicism was a current of thought within the Catholic Church. It was influential in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, especially in France. It is largely identified with French political theorists such as Felicité ...

Charles de Montalembert Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, and periodically got him in trouble, sometimes with the Catholic hierarchy.Thorp, Willard (1978). ''Catholic Novelists in Defense of Their Faith, 1829-1865''. New York: Arno Press, A New York Times Company. He published ''Brownson's Quarterly Review'', a Catholic journal of opinion, including many reviews of "inspirational novels". Throughout the 19th century Irish-American novelist commentated on the treatment of Irish immigrant communities. Novels produced throughout the period were often based the continued social prejudices which these communities endured. Works such as Peter McCorry's ''Mount Benedict'', included violence directed at Irish immigrants and the links the violence to the shown in Charleston and the "attempted wreckings in the north of Ireland." which occurred in unison during the 1830s and 1840s. In the years after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, a young priest by the name of Fr. Isaac Hecker traveled around giving lectures with the aim of evangelizing both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In 1865, Fr. Hecker started a periodical which he named the Catholic World and in 1867 he founded the Catholic Publication Society to help publish and distribute them on a national level. Brownson wrote a number of articles for the ''

Catholic World ''The Catholic World'' was a periodical founded by Paulist Father Isaac Thomas Hecker in April 1865. It was published by the Paulist Fathers for over a century. According to Paulist Press, Hecker "wanted to create an intellectual journal for a g ...

''. In 1927, there was a growing curiosity toward the

Catholic culture Christian culture generally includes all the cultural practices which have developed around the religion of Christianity. There are variations in the application of Christian beliefs in different cultures and traditions. Christian culture has i ...

among the faith community. As Catholic literature was more readily accepted, more and more pieces of literature with Catholic themes and subjects were published. The mid-twentieth century saw a number of Catholic writers prominent in American literature, such as

Paul Horgan Paul George Vincent O'Shaughnessy Horgan (August 1, 1903 – March 8, 1995) was an American writer of historical fiction and non-fiction who mainly wrote about the Southwestern United States. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes for Histor ...

Edwin O'Connor Edwin Greene O'Connor (July 29, 1918 – March 23, 1968) was an American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1962 for his novel '' The Edge of Sadness'' (1961). His ancestry was Irish, and his no ...

Henry Morton Robinson Henry Morton Robinson (September 7, 1898 – January 13, 1961) was an American novelist, best known for '' A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake'' written with Joseph Campbell and his 1950 novel ''The Cardinal'', which ''Time'' magazine reported w ...

Caroline Gordon Caroline Ferguson Gordon (October 6, 1895 – April 11, 1981) was an American novelist and literary critic who, while still in her thirties, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1932 and an O. Henry Award in 1934. Biography Gordon was born ...

, and poet

Phyllis McGinley Phyllis McGinley (March 21, 1905 – February 22, 1978) was an American author of children's books and poetry. Her poetry was in the style of light verse, specializing in humor, satiric tone and the positive aspects of suburban life. She won a P ...

. Between 1945 and 1965, Catholic novelists and poets received eleven Pulitzer Prizes and five National Book Awards.

J. F. Powers James Farl Powers (July 8, 1917June 12, 1999) was an American novelist and short story writer who often drew his inspiration from developments in the Catholic Church, and was known for his studies of Catholic priests in the Midwest. Although not a ...

was an American novelist and short-story writer whose work has long been admired for its gentle satire and its ability to recreate with a few words the insular but gradually changing world of post-World War II American Catholicism. He is known for having captured a "clerical idiom" in postwar North America. His story "The Valiant Woman" received the O. Henry Award in 1947. His first novel was Morte d'Urban (1962), which won the 1963 National Book Award for Fiction

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

Walker Percy Walker Percy, OSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, ''The Moviegoer'', won the Nat ...

, and

Frank O'Connor Frank O'Connor (born Michael Francis O'Donovan; 17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966) was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry (original and translations from Irish), dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on a ...

admired his work.Mel Gussow (June 17, 1999)
"J. F. Powers, 81, Dies; Wrote About Priests"
''The New York Times''

References

{{Reflist

External links

Gioia, Dana. "The Catholic Writer Today", ''First Things'', December 2013
Religious literature Catholic Church in the United States

Definition

History

See also

References

External links