Department of English

About Josh Hasler

Originally working in philosophy of religion, my most recent research has focused on the religious uses of fiction. Specifically, I’ve written on how American fiction writers—especially Cormac McCarthy—have developed literary techniques that adapt and imitate philosophical, mystical and religious efforts to refer to non-referrable objects (e.g. God, the Good, transcendentals). Related questions arise surprisingly often in classes like W131, W170, and in the Liberal Arts and Management Program (LAMP M301, M302). To be sure, what words, images, and representations do to us and our practices are central questions in the cultural study and analysis of rhetoric. However, I also find that students often do use religious analogues to discuss disenchantments and re-enchantments of labor, money, and the workplace that they face as they imagine their future roles. What does it mean, for example, to labor in bureaucratic structures in fields and institutions that also represent themselves as creative, innovative, even messianic? My hope is that my corner of university education can help students develop tools to fruitfully cope with the ambiguities of being working, studying, and being alive.