Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief from the Bible to the PresentHarold Bloom surveys with majestic view the literature of the West from the Old Testament to Samuel Beckett. He provocatively rereads the Yahwist (or J) writer, Jeremiah, Job, Jonah, the Iliad, the Aeneid, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, the Henry IV plays, Paradise Lost, Blake’s Milton, Wordsworth’s Prelude, and works by Freud, Kafka, and Beckett. In so doing, he uncovers the truth that all our attempts to call any strong work more sacred than another are merely political and social formulations. This is criticism at its best. |
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Page 98
... Paradise Lost . The term " dualism " seems not to have been used before 1700 , and perhaps represents the waning of what Neil Forsyth in his study of the Devil calls " the combat myth . " Paradise Lost is the last and greatest stand of ...
... Paradise Lost . The term " dualism " seems not to have been used before 1700 , and perhaps represents the waning of what Neil Forsyth in his study of the Devil calls " the combat myth . " Paradise Lost is the last and greatest stand of ...
Page 103
... lost ? All is not lost ; the unconquerable will , And study of revenge , immortal hate , And courage never to submit ... Paradise Lost's Satan may be a lie , but as such it is a heroic fic- tion , a lying against time , a surge that is ...
... lost ? All is not lost ; the unconquerable will , And study of revenge , immortal hate , And courage never to submit ... Paradise Lost's Satan may be a lie , but as such it is a heroic fic- tion , a lying against time , a surge that is ...
Page 125
... Paradise Lost calls " misdoubting " the intent of Milton's argument , a mis- doubting leading to the supposed fear " That he would ruin ( for I saw him strong ) / The sacred Truths to Fable and Old Song . All strong poets , whether ...
... Paradise Lost calls " misdoubting " the intent of Milton's argument , a mis- doubting leading to the supposed fear " That he would ruin ( for I saw him strong ) / The sacred Truths to Fable and Old Song . All strong poets , whether ...
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Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief from the Bible to the Present Harold Bloom Limited preview - 1991 |
Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief from the Bible to the Present Harold Bloom Limited preview - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Aeneid agonistic allegory ambivalence authority Beatrice Beckett believe biblical Blake bodily ego Book Book of Job C. S. Lewis called Christian cognitive critics crucial Dante Dante's death despite divine doorkeeper drive dualism Edmund everything Falstaff father fiction Fortinbras Freccero freedom Freud Freudian Gershom Scholem Gloucester Gnostic Gracchus Greek Hamlet heavens Hebrew Bible Hegelian hero Homer Horatio human Iago Iago's Iliad interpretation irony J's Yahweh Jeremiah Jewish Jewish memory Jews Judaism Kabbalah Kafka King Klamm Lear Lear's literary means Milton mode monism Moses negation negative never Nietzsche normative Odradek originality Othello parable Paradise Lost passion pathos perhaps poem poet poetic poetry precursor Prelude prophet represent representation rhetoric Satan Scholem seems sense Shakespeare speak spirit stance story strong sublime superego thou tion Torah tradition transcendence trope truth Turnus uncanny Virgil vision Weiskel word Wordsworth writer Yahweh Yahwist