|
books
| book details |
The Rhetoric of Romantic Prophecy
By (author) Ian Balfour
|
| on special |
normal price: R 1,239.95
Price: R 1,177.95
|
| book description |
The Romantic era in England and Germany saw a sudden renewal of prophetic modes of writing. Biblical prophecy and, to a lesser extent, classical oracle again became viable models for poetry and even for journalistic prose. Notably, this development arose out of the new-found freedom of biblical interpretation that began in the mid-eighteenth century, as the Bible was increasingly seen to be a literary and mythical text. Taking Walter Benjamin’s thinking about history as a point of departure, the author shows how the model for Romantic prophecy emerges less as a prediction of the future than as a call to change in the present, even as it quotes, at key turns, texts from the past. After surveying developments in eighteenth-century biblical hermeneutics, as well as the numerous instances of prophetic eruption in Romantic poetry, the book culminates in close readings of works by Blake, Hölderlin, and Coleridge. Each of these writers interpreted the Bible in strong, variously radical and conservative ways, and each reworked prophetic texts in often startling fashion. The author’s reading of Blake focuses on the complex temporal and rhetorical dynamics at work in a prophetic tradition, with attention paid to the key mediating figure of Milton. The chapter on Hölderlin investigates the truth-claim of poetry and the consequences of Hölderlin’s insight into the necessarily figural character of poetry. The analysis of Coleridge correlates his theory of allegory and symbol with his theory and practice of political writing, which often relies on mobilizing prophetic authority. Together, the readings force us to reexamine the claims and practices of Romantic poets and thinkers and their ideas and ideologies, not without engendering some allegorical resonance with issues in our own time.
| product details |
Normally shipped |
Publisher | Stanford University Press
Published date | 20 Aug 2002
Language |
Format | Paperback / softback
Pages | 368
Dimensions | 229 x 152 x 0mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 503g
ISBN | 978-0-8047-4506-2
Readership Age |
BISAC | literary criticism / poetry
| other options |
Normally shipped |
Readership Age |
Normal Price | R 1,367.95
Price | R 1,299.95
| on special |
|
|
|
To view the items in your trolley please sign in.
| sign in |
|
|
| specials |
|
The Thing at 52 is a beautiful picture book about friendship, loneliness and learning how to say goodbye.
|
The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Learn how to recognise and resist the daily attempts to control and manipulate your mind.
|
With film rights snapped up by an Oscar winning Hollywood production company, rights sold in a world record 43 territories, and rave blurbs from David Baldacci, Lee Child and A.
|
|
|
|