This dissertation presents an argument for the ethical value of a reader's inability to fully comprehend works by Jorge Luis Borges, G.K. Chesterton, William Faulkner, and Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien). Such texts demand creative engagement by the reader which could be described as a necessary betrayal of the text. Viewed in the context of the so-called "ethical turn" in literary theory, the revaluation of infidelity accomplished by such unfaithful reading can foster a greater openness toward the unknown, and ultimately unknowable, other. Similarly, by juxtaposing the work of Faulkner, a canonical modernist writer, with more nontraditional writers such as Chesterton and O'Nolan, I mean to betray the sort of limitations created by employing such categorical terms as "modernism" itself. In an introductory chapter, I use the work of ethical theorist Emmanuel Levinas, as well as the socio-political theory of Zygmunt Bauman and Ernesto Laclau, to develop a theoretical framework for the project, taking some examples from the writings of Borges. My chapter on Chesterton presents "The Man Who Was Thursday" as a site of multiple betrayals which can awaken the reader to the instability of any fixed notion of identity. I conclude the chapter with a specific show of infidelity in the 1924 Russian adaptation of Chesterton's novel for the Kamerny theater in Moscow, an intentional "misreading" that reveals aspects of the work glossed over by years of more ostensibly faithful interpretations. My third chapter features a sustained reflection on the ethics of reading Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying," a work which stubbornly "keeps its secret," to use Derrida's phrasing. Since any reading of this story must be, on a certain level, a betrayal, I discuss the possibilities opened up by resisting the tendency to fix the meaning of such an undecidable work. In my final chapter, I consider the work of O'Nolan as a testimony to the constitutive power of betrayal. In his deconstruction of authorial presence, his Judas-like betrayal of James Joyce, and his provocative 1943 "translation" onto the Dublin stage of the Capek brothers' "Insect Play," O'Nolan is always unfaithful to his object; however, the revaluation of infidelity posited by this dissertation suggests that his traitorous stance could paradoxically do more justice to the objects of his focus than would a more ostensibly faithful approach.

This work is comprised of an Introduction and two Parts. Part One treats, by way of historical review and evaluation, the disestablishment of the Christian worldview in a postmodern age. Part Two proposes the means by whichthe Christian worldview might be reestablished. The reestablishment includes the use of some of the benefits of postmodernism by Christians as well as a return to the responsible reading of texts, especially the biblical text. Part One, The Disestablishment of the Christian Worldview, is composed ofthree chapters. Chapter 1chronicles the change that has occurred in Western culture because of the ascendency of postmodernism. It isbest described as a change in authorityfrom the logocentric metanarrative which has characterized Christianity to the deconstructionist rejection of worldviews by postmodern literary critics. Chapter 2 reviews the paradigm shifts that have occurred in belief systemsthat have occurred in the West as a result of this change,and Chapter 3 shows the effects of all this in the culture's principal institutions. Part Two, The Reestablishment of the Christian Worldview, is also composed of three chapters. Chapter 4 shows the impact that postmodernity has had on the efforts now being made on behalf of reestablishing the Christian worldview as a viable intellectual position in Western culture. Chapter 5 is occupied with the negative and positive responses of certain Christian scholars to the challenge of postmodernism, and Chapter 6 closes the study with an extended treatment of the factors that must be in play for a reestablishment of the Christian worldview to occur in Western civilization. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theology)

This work is comprised of an Introduction and two Parts. Part One treats, by way of historical review and evaluation, the disestablishment of the Christian worldview in a postmodern age. Part Two proposes the means by whichthe Christian worldview might be reestablished. The reestablishment includes the use of some of the benefits of postmodernism by Christians as well as a return to the responsible reading of texts, especially the biblical text. Part One, The Disestablishment of the Christian Worldview, is composed ofthree chapters. Chapter 1chronicles the change that has occurred in Western culture because of the ascendency of postmodernism. It isbest described as a change in authorityfrom the logocentric metanarrative which has characterized Christianity to the deconstructionist rejection of worldviews by postmodern literary critics. Chapter 2 reviews the paradigm shifts that have occurred in belief systemsthat have occurred in the West as a result of this change,and Chapter 3 shows the effects of all this in the culture's principal institutions. Part Two, The Reestablishment of the Christian Worldview, is also composed of three chapters. Chapter 4 shows the impact that postmodernity has had on the efforts now being made on behalf of reestablishing the Christian worldview as a viable intellectual position in Western culture. Chapter 5 is occupied with the negative and positive responses of certain Christian scholars to the challenge of postmodernism, and Chapter 6 closes the study with an extended treatment of the factors that must be in play for a reestablishment of the Christian worldview to occur in Western civilization. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theology)