Revising Life Through Literature: Dialogical Change from the Reformation Through PostmodernismScarecrow Press, 2006 - 187 pages After the Reformation, science superseded both religion and literature as the favored source of knowledge. As people became free of a catechism of rote responses, they found the concept of self-determination both liberating and terrifying. Literature stepped in by providing examples of fictional characters that made choices in circumstances similar to the quandaries faced by readers--situations that could not be easily resolved by scripture alone. As a critical theory, dialogism makes our literary heritage germane. It offers a strategy for readers to improve their immediate lives through literary insights. It also offers a means to employ literary theory to reveal overlooked clues and lingering inhibitions embedded in past literature that can affect the reader's present life. In Revising Life Through Literature: Dialogical Change from the Reformation through Postmodernism, Joyce Brotton cites topical examples of the past several centuries to argue the relevancy of literary works to everyday existence. Each chapter opens with a philosophical background that identifies conflict arising from a dichotomy between religion and science, followed by a literary discussion of works that respond to the needs of that age. Included in her discussion are King Lear, The Duchess of Malfi, Paradise Lost, Candide, Wuthering Heights, and Adam Bede. More recent examples include James Joyce's Ulysses, John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, Julian Barnes' The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. This book is more than a teaching vehicle; it focuses on the parallel power of the imagination to create situations that may not reflect exactly the reader's own needs, but can boost confidence by offering a range of options for coping with life. This absorbing, entertaining, and informative resource encourages readers to use literature for relevancy rather than as a mere distraction. |
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Page 91
... present as the bases of the future . Although Lessing defined the process as providential and Herder characterized it as a natural progression , both saw historical evolution as unfolding in a positive direction -- the world was growing ...
... present as the bases of the future . Although Lessing defined the process as providential and Herder characterized it as a natural progression , both saw historical evolution as unfolding in a positive direction -- the world was growing ...
Page 111
... present to improve our future . It is in the concrete examples of works such as Eliot's Adam Bede that close reading reveals sources of present - day assumptions and lets us recapture the social world forming around Matthew Arnold's ...
... present to improve our future . It is in the concrete examples of works such as Eliot's Adam Bede that close reading reveals sources of present - day assumptions and lets us recapture the social world forming around Matthew Arnold's ...
Page 143
... present situations through a dialogical reading . Hans - Georg Gadamer ( 1900-2002 ) insists that how literary texts are received depends of necessity upon the temporality of both literary interpretation and historical setting - we ...
... present situations through a dialogical reading . Hans - Georg Gadamer ( 1900-2002 ) insists that how literary texts are received depends of necessity upon the temporality of both literary interpretation and historical setting - we ...
Contents
Origins of the Existing Worldview | 13 |
The New Worldview | 24 |
William Shakespeare | 30 |
Copyright | |
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accepted Adam Bede advocated allusions Arnold authentic authority Bakhtin behavior believed biblical Blind Assassin Bosola Brontë's Candide Catherine characters Charles Taylor choices Church concept Copernicus created Darwin death Descartes dialogue divine doctrine Duchess Duchess of Malfi earth eighteenth century ethical evolutionary existence faith fiction Gadamer George Eliot God's Hans-Georg Gadamer happiness Heathcliff Hermeneutics hierarchy human Hume identity imaginative individual interpretation Iris John Johnson Joyce Julian Barnes Kernan knowledge Laura Lear literary modernism literature live Lyell's meaning Mikhail Bakhtin Milton modernist moral natural law natural religion nineteenth century novel Orestes Paradise Lost Paradise Regained past philosophers poem poetry postmodern literature postmodernism present Rasselas reader reason recognize reflected religious represented revealed Revolution Sartre scientific scripture seems sense seventeenth century Shakespeare social species spiritual T. S. Eliot Tennyson theory tion tradition trans University Press Unless otherwise specified Webster Wordsworth writing Wuthering Wuthering Heights York