الممارسات اللّغويّة
Volume 17, Numéro 2, Pages 971-989
2026-09-15
From Pulpit To Screen: Secularization, Mass Culture, And The Remaking Of Belief In John Updike’s In The Beauty Of The Lilies (1996)
Authors : Aziz Rabéa .
Abstract
This paper interprets John Updike’s In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996) as a narrative of twentieth-century American cultural history, highlighting changes in belief amid secularization and the growing influence of mass culture. Covering four generations of the Wilmot family, the novel shows how Protestant religious authority is gradually replaced by cinema, celebrity culture, and popular spectacle, which become primary sources of meaning and social bonding. Using Max Weber’s idea of disenchantment and Neal Gabler’s view of mass media as providing a secular form of transcendence, the article argues that Updike presents secularization not as a sudden break but as a process of replacement—where spiritual longing persists despite the decline of institutional religion. By portraying belief at different historical moments—from early film culture to postwar consumerism—the novel offers a literary perspective on how American modernity reshapes faith, authority, and transcendence. Seen as a reflection of American civilization, In the Beauty of the Lilies reveals the cultural mechanisms through which twentieth-century America addresses diminished religious certainty without losing the desire for transcendental meaning.
Keywords
Secularization ; Disenchantment ; Mass media ; Celebrity culture ; American modernity ; Spiritual longing
Les articles similaires
بوسالم أحلام
.
عابد يوسف
.
ص 117-132.
Yahia Zeghoudi
.
pages 74-88.
Meziani Mourad
.
pages 113-126.
بوطورة حنان
.
منصوري سميرة
.
ص 191-224.
Said Houari Amel
.
pages 257-268.
