Fictional Saints

Media that represent extraordinary individuals (saints, sages, heroes, etc.) are well known for their interplay between “historical” and “fictional” elements—a polarity that has been justly interrogated in contemporary theory. This roundtable takes up the status of fiction as a cross-cultural dimension of hagiography, in three respects: (1) The textures and functions of fictional artistry in conventional hagiography or the “historical” force of even “ahistorical” saintly representations; (2) The role of saintly figures appearing in fictionalized representations of historical religions; (3) Saintly figures and functions in speculative fictional worlds, which may enact saintly dynamics or upend saintly dynamics. Contributions will explore resonances and dissonances between such wide-ranging sources as medieval Christian saints’ Lives, medieval Sufi poetry, contemporary Iranian filmmaking, literary reimaginings of the Wandering Jew legendarium, the “hagiographic form” in European and American Modernist literature, and saintly figures and functions appearing in the sci-fantasy strategy wargame Warhammer 40,000.