The Humanist (Re)Turn: Reclaiming the Self in Literature

Description

This exciting new book argues for a renewed emphasis on humanism--contrary to the trend of post-humanism, or what Neema Parvini calls "the anti-humanism" of the last several decades of literary and theoretical scholarship. In this trail-blazing study, Michael Bryson argues for this renewal of perspective by covering literature written in different languages, times, and places, calling for a return to a humanism, which focuses on literary characters and their psychological and existential struggles―not struggles of competition, but of connection, the struggles of fragmented, incomplete individuals for integration, wholeness, and unity. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments 1 Reclaiming the Self: Transcending Postmodern Fragmentation I. The Fragmentation of the Individual Subject II. The Humanist (Re)Turn: Transcendence, the Self, and the Other in Literature III. Transcending Fragmentation: A Possible History IV. Transcendence as Evolution and Individuation V. Transcendence in Literature 2 Transcendence Through Participation and Action in the Bhagavad Gita I. The Call of a God II. Transcendence Through Action III. Transcendence Through Participation 3 The Binding of Criseyde and Troilus: Success and Failure in the Attempt to Transcend the “love of kynde” in Troilus and Criseyde 4 Success and Failure of Transcendence in Christopher Marlowe’s Dido Queene of Carthage and William Shakespeare’s Othello I. Obedience as Submission in Marlowe’s Dido Queene of Carthage II. Desdemona and Othello: Success and Failure in the Transcendence of Self III. Othello: The Tragedy of Blindness 5 Transcendence as Disobedience and Choice in Clarissa, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre I. Clarissa Harlowe: Defiance and the Failure of Choice II. The Meaning of Clarissa’s Rebellion III. Elizabeth Bennet: Women who Choose Without Apologies IV. Jane Eyre: Love and Choice as Transcendence 6 Transcendence as Participation: The Union of Masculine and Feminine in Goethe’s Faust 7 Reclaiming a Solemn Bequest: Transcending Fragmentation, Recovering Trust, and Returning from Exile in Silas Marner 8 Transcendence Through Transgression and Kenosis: Sin as Salvation and Self-Emptying in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood I. Transgression as Transcendence II. Hazel Motes and Transgression III. Hazel Motes and Kenosis Epilogue: What Is to Come? Bibliography Index