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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... never leaving anything behind. Whatever we have been, in some sense we still are.''11 I take this to mean that we can participate imaginatively, both as individuals and as a culture, in past modes of being and adapt them to our present ...
... never leaving anything behind. Whatever we have been, in some sense we still are.''11 I take this to mean that we can participate imaginatively, both as individuals and as a culture, in past modes of being and adapt them to our present ...
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... never apologizes for this violation. It remains nonnegotiable, though he tries to bribe Achilles back into the Greek alliance with gifts and flattery. ''Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed'' is Robert ...
... never apologizes for this violation. It remains nonnegotiable, though he tries to bribe Achilles back into the Greek alliance with gifts and flattery. ''Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed'' is Robert ...
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... Never was treason committed with such lyric sweetness, even as Achilles initiates the sequence of events that will take him to the bottom of his moral world and result in the death of Patroclus. I quote here a few lines from the ...
... Never was treason committed with such lyric sweetness, even as Achilles initiates the sequence of events that will take him to the bottom of his moral world and result in the death of Patroclus. I quote here a few lines from the ...
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... never could be anything at all.9 What the Genesis poem does is o√er an account of what happened just before, and then at, the ''beginning.'' Its account is highly organized, its verbal form as well as its content reflecting the view ...
... never could be anything at all.9 What the Genesis poem does is o√er an account of what happened just before, and then at, the ''beginning.'' Its account is highly organized, its verbal form as well as its content reflecting the view ...
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... never been easy for God to deal with. Moses develops the understanding of monotheism evolved in Genesis. Obeying a new definition of the divine mission, that of the law and nation-building, he becomes a powerful rebel against the ...
... never been easy for God to deal with. Moses develops the understanding of monotheism evolved in Genesis. Obeying a new definition of the divine mission, that of the law and nation-building, he becomes a powerful rebel against the ...
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
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
Achilles actual ancient appear Athens Augustine become beginning Brunetto Latini called Canto century certainly chapter Christian civilization comes Commandment considered course culture Dante death di√erent Divine doubt Egyptian entire epic everything example existence Exodus experience fact figure first follow Gatsby Genesis give Greek Hamlet Hebrew hero heroic holiness Homer human idea important intellectual Israelites Jerusalem Jesus John killed King knowledge land later least live looked Lord magical meaning mind Moses move murder narrative never novel passage Paul perhaps philosophy pilgrim Plato play poem poet possible prince Raskolnikov reach reason reflection religious remains represents Roman scene seems seen sense Shakespeare society Socrates speak story student tell things thought tion tradition truth turned understand universe Virgil voice Voltaire Western whole writing written York