Emily Griesinger is Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.Mark A. Eaton is Associate Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.

The Gift of Story addresses a vital theme--that of Hope--in contemporary fiction, film, and philosophy, focusing on the Christian tradition as a response to the "postmodern" climate of fragmented hopes and fears at the turn of the twenty-first century. The book's essays find surprising expressions of hope in the novels and movies they examine, and are themselves efforts to find and express hope. --Will Katerberg, Calvin College

• AcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductionSection 1: The Postmodern Condition1. Inventing Hope: The Question of Belief in Don DeLillo's Novels, Mark Eaton 2. Voices from Within: Gloria Anzald??a, bell hooks, and Roberta Bondi, Anne-Marie Bowery3. Time for Hope: The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, Memento, and Twelve Monkeys, D. Brent Laytham4. Beyond Futility: American Beauty and the Book of Ecclesiastes, Robert K. JohnstonSection 2: The Valley of Despair5. Prosaic Grace: Doris Betts's Souls Raised from the Dead, Martha Greene Eads6. Narrative Bones: Amy Tan's Bonesetter's Daughter and Hugh Cook's Homecoming Man, Elaine Lux7. Hope from a Radio: Jurek Becker's Jakob the Liar , Eric Sterling8. Friendship and Hope: Elie Wiesel's The Town Beyond the Wall, Carole J. LambertSection 3: Resisting the Night9. A Passion for the Impossible: Richard Rorty, John Okada, and James Baldwin, Harold K. Bush, Jr.10. The Prophetic Burden: James Baldwin as a Latter-Day Jeremiah, Kelvin Beliele11. Reconciliation and Hope: Confessional Narratives in South Africa, Susan Van Zanten GallagherSection 4: Adversity and Grace12. Hope in Hard Times: Moments of Epiphany in Illness Narratives, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre13. Geographies of Hope: Kathleen Norris and David Lynch, Kevin L. Cole14. Attunement and Healing: The Fisher King, Michael B. Herzog15. The Gift of Grace: Isak Dinesen's Babette's Feast, Maire MullinsSection 5: Hope and the Imagination16. The Redress of Imagination: Bernard MacLaverty's Grace Notes, Barry Sloan17. The Search for ""Deeper Magic"": J. K. Rowling and C. S. Lewis, Emily Griesinger18. J. R. R. Tolkien: Postmodern Visionary of Hope, Ralph C. WoodWorks CitedList of Contributors

Emily Griesinger is Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.Mark A. Eaton is Associate Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.

The Gift of Story addresses a vital theme--that of Hope--in contemporary fiction, film, and philosophy, focusing on the Christian tradition as a response to the "postmodern" climate of fragmented hopes and fears at the turn of the twenty-first century. The book's essays find surprising expressions of hope in the novels and movies they examine, and are themselves efforts to find and express hope. --Will Katerberg, Calvin College

• AcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductionSection 1: The Postmodern Condition1. Inventing Hope: The Question of Belief in Don DeLillo's Novels, Mark Eaton 2. Voices from Within: Gloria Anzald??a, bell hooks, and Roberta Bondi, Anne-Marie Bowery3. Time for Hope: The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, Memento, and Twelve Monkeys, D. Brent Laytham4. Beyond Futility: American Beauty and the Book of Ecclesiastes, Robert K. JohnstonSection 2: The Valley of Despair5. Prosaic Grace: Doris Betts's Souls Raised from the Dead, Martha Greene Eads6. Narrative Bones: Amy Tan's Bonesetter's Daughter and Hugh Cook's Homecoming Man, Elaine Lux7. Hope from a Radio: Jurek Becker's Jakob the Liar , Eric Sterling8. Friendship and Hope: Elie Wiesel's The Town Beyond the Wall, Carole J. LambertSection 3: Resisting the Night9. A Passion for the Impossible: Richard Rorty, John Okada, and James Baldwin, Harold K. Bush, Jr.10. The Prophetic Burden: James Baldwin as a Latter-Day Jeremiah, Kelvin Beliele11. Reconciliation and Hope: Confessional Narratives in South Africa, Susan Van Zanten GallagherSection 4: Adversity and Grace12. Hope in Hard Times: Moments of Epiphany in Illness Narratives, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre13. Geographies of Hope: Kathleen Norris and David Lynch, Kevin L. Cole14. Attunement and Healing: The Fisher King, Michael B. Herzog15. The Gift of Grace: Isak Dinesen's Babette's Feast, Maire MullinsSection 5: Hope and the Imagination16. The Redress of Imagination: Bernard MacLaverty's Grace Notes, Barry Sloan17. The Search for ""Deeper Magic"": J. K. Rowling and C. S. Lewis, Emily Griesinger18. J. R. R. Tolkien: Postmodern Visionary of Hope, Ralph C. WoodWorks CitedList of Contributors