The Tenth Muse
The Tenth Muse

Author: Cary H. Plotkin

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780809314881

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With authority and sensitivity Plotkin traces the close relationship between Hopkins's poetry and the theories of language suggested in his Journals and expounded by Victorian philologists such as Max Müller and George Marsh. Plotkin seeks to determine what changed Hopkins's perception of language between the writing of such early poems as "The Habit of Perfection" and "Nondum" (1866) and his creation of The Wreck of the Deutschland (1875-76). Did the language of the ode, and of Hopkins's mature poetry generally, arise as spontaneously as it appears to have done, or does it have a traceable genesis in the ways in which language as a whole was conceived and studied in mid-century England? In answer, Plotkin fixes the development of Hopkins's singular poetic language in the philological context of his time. If one is to understand Hopkins's writings and poetic language in the context in which they developed rather than in the terms of a present-day theory of history or textuality, then that movement in all of its complexity must be considered. Hopkins "translates" into the language of poetry patterns and categories common to Victorian language study.

The Life of Words
The Life of Words

Author: David-Antoine Williams

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0192540548

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For centuries, investigations into the origins of words were entwined with investigations into the origins of humanity and the cosmos. With the development of modern etymological practice in the nineteenth century, however, many cherished etymologies were shown to be impossible, and the very idea of original 'true meaning' asserted in the etymology of 'etymology' declared a fallacy. Structural linguistics later held that the relationship between sound and meaning in language was 'arbitrary', or 'unmotivated', a truth that has survived with small modification until today. On the other hand, the relationship between sound and meaning has been a prime motivator of poems, at all times throughout history. The Life of Words studies a selection of poets inhabiting our 'Age of the Arbitrary', whose auditory-semantic sensibilities have additionally been motivated by a historical sense of the language, troubled as it may be by claims and counterclaims of 'fallacy' or 'true meaning'. Arguing that etymology activates peculiar kinds of epistemology in the modern poem, the book pays extended attention to poems by G. M. Hopkins, Anne Waldman, Ciaran Carson, and Anne Carson, and to the collected works of Geoffrey Hill, Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, and J. H. Prynne.

Mimetic Theory and Its Shadow
Mimetic Theory and Its Shadow

Author: Scott Cowdell

Publisher: MSU Press

Published: 2023-08-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 160917741X

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Leading Girardian theologian Scott Cowdell seeks to resolve a long-standing challenge to mimetic theory: that it entails a fundamental brutishness—an ontological violence. Girard’s account of scapegoating violence, seen as providing the initial stability for our species to emerge and consolidate, hardly seems compatible with Christian belief in God’s good creation, with violence only appearing after a subsequent Fall. The brilliant but controversial theologian John Milbank has long raised this concern about Girard, grounded in a remarkably sophisticated (though seldom fathomed) philosophical theology. Unpacking Milbank’s program, along with Girard’s recasting of Continental philosophy in light of mimetic theory, Cowdell finds a way between two apparently irreconcilable positions. With irenic spirit but analytic tenacity, he probes for ways through Milbank’s arguments while pressing on growth points in Girard’s. Cowdell’s proposals involve reframing divine creation in light of salvation history, reimagining divine participation by thinking Christ and evolution together, and developing a semiotic approach to mimetic theory that delivers ontological peace hermeneutically. Cowdell shows how Girard’s vision of human transformation through faith in Christ reveals a different world beyond ontological violence while preserving the divine participation that Milbank champions.

You Looked at Me
You Looked at Me

Author: Claudine Moine

Publisher: James Clarke & Company

Published: 2024-06-27

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 0227180313

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In You Looked At Me, Claudine Moine writes a profound autobiographical account of her own spiritual development. Impacted by her experiences as a refugee from the Thirty Years' War, Moine relates a detailed narrative of God's involvement in her life, comprising times of favour, temptation, transverberation and mystical marriage, and the state of darkness that caused her to cease writing. Illuminated by the translation and collation of Rev. Gerard Carroll, You Looked At Me is a work of extraordinary spiritual and theological richness, offering insights for spiritual seekers and historical researchers alike. It stands in the company of Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love and The Cloud of Unknowing as a crucial text of historical spirituality.

About Language
About Language

Author: Marden J. Clark

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

Published: 1975

Total Pages: 756

ISBN-13: 9780023226205

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