The following will be of particular interest to colleagues working in
German poetry and philosophy, as well as comparative literature.
'The Near and Distant God: Poetry, Idealism and Religious Thought from
Hölderlin to Eliot', by Ian Cooper
See:
http://www.mhra.org.uk/cgi-bin/legenda/legenda.pl?catalogue=b9781906540005
Poetry and philosophy from the time of Kant to the mid-twentieth century
are centrally concerned with the question of how the Spirit - or the Holy
Spirit - is present in the world. Cooper argues that a major strand in the
development of modern poetry in German and English can be seen as a
protracted response to the religious crises of post-Idealist thought. The
German tradition develops through poets such as Hölderlin as much as
through philosophers such as Hegel and Nietzsche, and in England German
ideas profoundly influenced the British Idealist school. This compelling
study makes parallel readings of German and English writers, showing that
their affinities are deeper and more historically-based than has previously
been realised. Eduard Mörike and Gerard Manley Hopkins, both churchmen,
each encountered Idealism as students in their respective countries: each
responded to it in his spiritual verse. And we find similar parallels in
two of the defining works of twentieth-century poetry: Rilke's Duino
Elegies and Eliot's Four Quartets.
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