Postmodern fiction and the Bible: Robert Coover's rewritings

Contemporary literature has given special emphasis to the relationship among texts. There has been a tendency to revisit and rework canonized narratives, giving rise to renewed ones. The Bible, for instance, has been subject to such scrutiny by several writers, including the American Robert Coover. He rereads and rewrites biblical passages in three of his short stories. Those fictional versions question the notion of fixed truths and the possibility of an established meaning for those narratives, a concern that characterizes many literary works labeled as postmodern. In this study, Peircean semiotics provides a theoretical frame that allows understanding Coover's stories and the Bible as interrelated sign systems generating divergent interpretants. Coover's rewritings, thus, introduce new perspectives to the biblical myths, opening interpretations for Christian mythology. As an attempt to contribute to literary studies in general and to Robert Coover's criticism in particular, this book aims to provide insights for teachers and students who research on the relationship between literature and other fields of knowledge.