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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 27
Page 12
... prophets ” because the Septuagint translated nabi by the Greek word prophetes , which means " interpreter . " I think that “ interpreter ” is better than " proclaimer " but we are stuck with the word " prophet , ” despite its partly ...
... prophets ” because the Septuagint translated nabi by the Greek word prophetes , which means " interpreter . " I think that “ interpreter ” is better than " proclaimer " but we are stuck with the word " prophet , ” despite its partly ...
Page 46
... prophetic . Dante has little real interest in being Pauline , Augustinian , or Thomis- tic ; only in being Dante the ... prophet of a Newer Testa- ment , at once imperial and vengeful , and with virtues that may be Christian only in a ...
... prophetic . Dante has little real interest in being Pauline , Augustinian , or Thomis- tic ; only in being Dante the ... prophet of a Newer Testa- ment , at once imperial and vengeful , and with virtues that may be Christian only in a ...
Page 162
... prophets inherit the Torah's skeptical inwardness , a spirit that drove Abraham upon his original journey , and that ... prophet says " The God - word was to me , " everything turns upon the meaning of that " me . " It is not meaning but ...
... prophets inherit the Torah's skeptical inwardness , a spirit that drove Abraham upon his original journey , and that ... prophet says " The God - word was to me , " everything turns upon the meaning of that " me . " It is not meaning but ...
Other editions - View all
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