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 102
... Satan , which was the contention of the neoclassical critics of Milton . Addison insisted that amid Satan's impieties " the au- thor has taken care to introduce none that is not big with ab- surdity , and incapable of shocking a ...
... Satan , which was the contention of the neoclassical critics of Milton . Addison insisted that amid Satan's impieties " the au- thor has taken care to introduce none that is not big with ab- surdity , and incapable of shocking a ...
Page 108
... Satan , as well as Edmund and Iago , there is something of Hamlet as well . Like Hamlet , Satan does not need us , except as an audience for his tragedy . Hamlet does not even want us , except to pack his theater of mind , while Satan ...
... Satan , as well as Edmund and Iago , there is something of Hamlet as well . Like Hamlet , Satan does not need us , except as an audience for his tragedy . Hamlet does not even want us , except to pack his theater of mind , while Satan ...
Page 112
... Satan into rebellion . How would Milton have reacted if his contemporaries had included a divine poet stronger than himself , say a Shakespeare devoted to composing the national religious epic ? Satan , until the nasty surprise of ...
... Satan into rebellion . How would Milton have reacted if his contemporaries had included a divine poet stronger than himself , say a Shakespeare devoted to composing the national religious epic ? Satan , until the nasty surprise of ...
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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