Voegelinian Readings of Modern Literature

by Embry, Charles R.

• ISBN13: 9780826219152
• ISBN10: 0826219152
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-16
• Publisher: Univ of Missouri Pr

Summary

The work of renowned thinker Eric Voegelin is largely rooted in his literary sensibility. Voegelinrs"s contributions to the field of philosophy grew from the depths of his knowledge of historyrs"s most important texts, from ancient to modern times. Many of the concepts he emphasized, such as participatory experience and symbolization in philosophy, have long been significant to literary criticism as well as philosophical study. Voegelin himself even ventured into the field of criticism, publishing a critical examination of Henry Jamesrs"sThe Turn of the Screwin 1971. Since it is so strongly influenced by the written record of manrs"s search for meaning, Voegelinian thought makes an ideal framework for the study of twentieth-century literature. ForVoegelinian Readings of Modern Literature,scholar Charles R. Embry has collected essays that consider particular pieces of literature in light of the philosopherrs"s work. These essays supply a theoretical grounding for the reading of novels, poems, and plays and reveal how the Voegelinian perspective exposes the existential and philosophical dimensions of the literary works themselves. As a unit, this collection of essays shows how modern pieces of literature can symbolize their creatorsrs" participation in the human search for the truth of existence-just as myths, philosophical works, and religious texts always have. Voegelinrs"s primary concern as a philosopher was to expose the roots of the disturbances of the modern era-religious conflict, imperialism, war-so that the sources of order leading to meaning are revealed. The openness of Voegelinian thought and the many ways he considered the levels of reality generate intriguing themes for literary criticism. In these essays, noted Voegelin scholars focus on American and European literary artists from the 1700s through the late twentieth century, including Emily Dickinson, Henrik Ibsen, Thomas Carlyle, D. H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, and Hermann Broch. While the intersection of the work of Eric Voegelin and literature has been a part of Voegelin scholarship for decades, this book explores that relationship in an extended form. Through a broad collection of thoughtful essays,Voegelinian Readings of Modern Literaturereveals how much Voegelin did to break down the barriers between literature and philosophy and makes an engaging contribution to Voegelin scholarship.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Pneumopathology and Individual Consciousness
ôThe Iceberg Rises and Sinks Againö: Elizabeth Bishop's Pneumopathologic Imagination	p. 9
Human Beings in the Metaxy: Dilemmas and Extremes in Henrik Ibsen	p. 30
ôCe n'est pas ma fauteö: The Strange Fortunes of Piety and Consciousness in Choderlos de Laclos's Les liaisons dangereuses	p. 45
The Loss of Public Order and the Search for Its Recovery
Styles of Truth in Dazai Osamu's Setting Sun	p. 67
Recovering Stefan George's Poetry of the Spirit from the Reductio ad Hitler	p. 94
A Gnostic Moment in Anglo-American Culture: Parousiasm of the Voice in Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus	p. 118
D. H. Lawrence: The Prophet's Cul de Sac	p. 152
Existence in the Tension of the Metaxy
The Tension of the Metaxy in Emily Dickinson's Poetry	p. 183
The Truth of the Novel: Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu	p. 209
Between Poetry and Philosophy: The Challenge of Hermann Broch	p. 238
Contributors	p. 267
Index	p. 271
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.