Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 01.10.2008 - 286 Seiten Although the essential books of Western civilization are no longer central in our courses or in our thoughts, they retain their ability to energize us intellectually, says Jeffrey Hart in this powerful book. He now presents a guide to some of these literary works, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their civilization and the basis for its achievements. Hart focuses on the productive tension between the classical and biblical strains in our civilization, between a life based on cognition and one based on faith and piety. He begins with the Iliad and Exodus, linking Achilles and Moses as Bronze Age heroic figures. Closely analysing texts and illuminating them in unexpected ways, he moves on to Socrates and Jesus, who internalized the heroic, continues with Paul and Augustine and their Christian synthesis, addresses Dante, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Moliere, and Voltaire, and concludes with the novel as represented by Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby. Hart maintains that the dialectical tensions suggested by this survey account for the restlessness and singular achievements of the West and that the essential books can provide the substance and energy currently missed by both students and educated readers. |
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Seite xi
... perhaps even science and mathematics . But here it will be told in terms of literature , which does not need to be translated from nonverbal to verbal expression . The most important books and other works of high intellect represent a ...
... perhaps even science and mathematics . But here it will be told in terms of literature , which does not need to be translated from nonverbal to verbal expression . The most important books and other works of high intellect represent a ...
Seite 3
... Perhaps thought requires contradiction . As Lionel Trilling once observed , " whenever we put two emotions into juxtaposition we have what we can properly call an idea . When Keats brings together , as he so often does , his emotions ...
... Perhaps thought requires contradiction . As Lionel Trilling once observed , " whenever we put two emotions into juxtaposition we have what we can properly call an idea . When Keats brings together , as he so often does , his emotions ...
Seite 9
... perhaps being too much for his nerves . He proposed to do so through a new kind of man who would contain the opposites . " The Roman Caesar , " he called it , " with Christ's soul . " This new man , the Übermensch , was , as Strauss put ...
... perhaps being too much for his nerves . He proposed to do so through a new kind of man who would contain the opposites . " The Roman Caesar , " he called it , " with Christ's soul . " This new man , the Übermensch , was , as Strauss put ...
Seite 12
... perhaps better , than we ordinarily would be . In a formulation worth pondering , Robert Frost once remarked that strong writing made us consider life " with greater regard . " 10 On the frieze above Butler Library at Columbia are ...
... perhaps better , than we ordinarily would be . In a formulation worth pondering , Robert Frost once remarked that strong writing made us consider life " with greater regard . " 10 On the frieze above Butler Library at Columbia are ...
Seite 16
... perhaps preserving a core of historical truth . Those archaic preliterate peoples cared deeply about their legends , a precious mode of self - understanding , and the bards told the old stories again and again . Originally they were ...
... perhaps preserving a core of historical truth . Those archaic preliterate peoples cared deeply about their legends , a precious mode of self - understanding , and the bards told the old stories again and again . Originally they were ...
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Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Hart Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2008 |
Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Peter Hart Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2001 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Aaron Abraham Achilles Aeneas Agamemnon Alceste ancient areté Aristotle Athens Athens and Jerusalem Augustine beauty beginning Bronze Age Brunetto C. S. Lewis Canto Célimène century certainly chapter Christian civilization cognition Commandment Confessions cosmos course culture Dante Dante's death Divine Comedy Dostoyevsky Egypt Egyptian empire Enlightenment epic everything Exodus experience figure Gatsby Gatsby's Genesis Greek philosophy Hebrew Bible Hector hero heroic holiness Homer Horeb human idea Iliad important Inferno intellectual Israelites Jesus killed King literature live Logos Lord magical mind Molière monotheism monotheistic moral Moses move murder narrative Nick novel Numbers Odysseus passage Paul perhaps Pharaoh pilgrim Dante Plato play poem poet Prince Hamlet Prophets Raskolnikov religious Rendsburg Roman scene seems sense Shakespeare Sinai society Socrates speak spirit student T. S. Eliot tell tension things Thou thought tion tradition Troy truth Ulysses universe Virgil voice Voltaire Western words