Thick and Dazzling Darkness

Religious Poetry in a Secular Age

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Poetry History & Criticism
Cover of the book Thick and Dazzling Darkness by Peter O'Leary, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Peter O'Leary ISBN: 9780231545976
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: November 21, 2017
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Peter O'Leary
ISBN: 9780231545976
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: November 21, 2017
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

How do poets use language to render the transcendent, often dizzyingly inexpressible nature of the divine? In an age of secularism, does spirituality have a place in modern American poetry? In Thick and Dazzling Darkness, Peter O’Leary reads a diverse set of writers to argue for the existence and importance of religious poetry in twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature. He traces a poetic genealogy that begins with Whitman and Dickinson and continues in the work of contemporary writers to illuminate an often obscured but still central spiritual impulse that has shaped the production and imagination of American poetry.

O’Leary presents close and comprehensive readings of the modernist, late-modernist, and postmodern poets Robinson Jeffers, Frank Samperi, and Robert Duncan, as well as the contemporary poets Joseph Donahue, Geoffrey Hill, Fanny Howe, Nathaniel Mackey, Pam Rehm, and Lissa Wolsak. Examining how these poets drew on a variety of traditions, including Catholicism, Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, and mysticism, the book considers how modern and contemporary poets have articulated the spiritual in their work. O’Leary also argues that an anxiety of misunderstanding exists in the study and writing of poetry between secular and religious impulses and that the religious nature of poets’ works is too often marginalized or misunderstood. Examining the works of a specific poet in each chapter, O’Leary reveals their complexity and offers a defense of the value and meaning of religious poetry against the grain of a secular society.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

How do poets use language to render the transcendent, often dizzyingly inexpressible nature of the divine? In an age of secularism, does spirituality have a place in modern American poetry? In Thick and Dazzling Darkness, Peter O’Leary reads a diverse set of writers to argue for the existence and importance of religious poetry in twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature. He traces a poetic genealogy that begins with Whitman and Dickinson and continues in the work of contemporary writers to illuminate an often obscured but still central spiritual impulse that has shaped the production and imagination of American poetry.

O’Leary presents close and comprehensive readings of the modernist, late-modernist, and postmodern poets Robinson Jeffers, Frank Samperi, and Robert Duncan, as well as the contemporary poets Joseph Donahue, Geoffrey Hill, Fanny Howe, Nathaniel Mackey, Pam Rehm, and Lissa Wolsak. Examining how these poets drew on a variety of traditions, including Catholicism, Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, and mysticism, the book considers how modern and contemporary poets have articulated the spiritual in their work. O’Leary also argues that an anxiety of misunderstanding exists in the study and writing of poetry between secular and religious impulses and that the religious nature of poets’ works is too often marginalized or misunderstood. Examining the works of a specific poet in each chapter, O’Leary reveals their complexity and offers a defense of the value and meaning of religious poetry against the grain of a secular society.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Transpacific Community by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Fu Ping by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Japan’s Security Renaissance by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Modernism at the Barricades by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book The Weave of My Life by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book The Death of Philosophy by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Shari'a Scripts by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Sinning in the Hebrew Bible by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Man, the State, and War by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Hearst Over Hollywood by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book The Political Impossibility of Modern Counterinsurgency by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Japanese War Criminals by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Understanding Environmental Policy by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book Reading the Global by Peter O'Leary
Cover of the book In Their Own Voices by Peter O'Leary
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy