In this groundbreaking study David R. Jarraway considers the perplexing question of belief in Wallace Stevens' poetry. From Stevens' early attempts to address the contradictions inherent in a substitutive humanism to his ultimate transformation of the metaphysical matter of faith into a postmetaphysical question of belief, Jarraway leads us step by step along the evolution of this High Modern icon's "genealogy of Belief." By tracing throughout Stevens' career his "relentless probing of what will suffice the spiritual in man ...
Read More
In this groundbreaking study David R. Jarraway considers the perplexing question of belief in Wallace Stevens' poetry. From Stevens' early attempts to address the contradictions inherent in a substitutive humanism to his ultimate transformation of the metaphysical matter of faith into a postmetaphysical question of belief, Jarraway leads us step by step along the evolution of this High Modern icon's "genealogy of Belief." By tracing throughout Stevens' career his "relentless probing of what will suffice the spiritual in man, " Jarraway deftly reconstructs the ways in which Stevens tried to reconcile an apparently irreconcilable opposition: his conviction that the "major poetic idea in the world is and always has been the idea of God, " and the modern imagination's movement away from that idea. At first Stevens suggested that the poetic imagination that created the idea of God "will either adapt it to our different intelligence, or create a substitute for it, or make it unnecessary." Unlike previous critica studies of Stevens' concern with faith, however, which have tended to stress his various aesthetic replacements for God, Jarraway compellingly argues that these replacements actually had disastrous consequences for Stevens the poet, resulting in the six years of silence that followed his first collection. Stevens, Jarraway contends, finally abandoned such aesthetic theocentrism and, under the influence of philosophers like Nietzsche and Heidegger, tried to adapt his poetry to what he called the "different intelligence" of our age. Adroitly citing modern thinkers like Derrida, Blanchot, and Levinas, Jarraway shows how Stevens' interest in the transformation from a literal quest to arhetorical question led him to investigate the interaction between faith and language. Jarraway never allows his theoretical sophistication to cloak his admiration for the valor of Stevens' imagination, an imagination that, in a world void of spiritual options, strives to shore up w
Read Less
Add this copy of Wallace Stevens and the Question of Belief: to cart. $19.00, very good condition, Sold by Satellite Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Burlington, VT, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Louisiana State Univ Pr.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good. Size: 6x1x9; Hardcover. Very Good / Very Good dust jacket. Free of any markings and no writings inside. Clear Text. Minor shelf-wear. Sunning on spine. Foxing on top edge. Slight bend to top corner at fore edge of some pages. For any additional information or pictures, please inquire.
Add this copy of Wallace Stevens and the Question of Belief: to cart. $22.74, very good condition, Sold by Aardvark Books Ltd rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bucknell, HEREFORDSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1993 by Louisiana State University Press.
Add this copy of Wallace Stevens and the Question of Belief: to cart. $52.24, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Louisiana State Univ Pr.
Add this copy of Wallace Stevens and the Question of Belief: to cart. $115.04, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Louisiana State Univ Pr.
