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The Near and Distant God: Poetry, Idealism and Religious Thought from Hölderlin to Eliot

Cooper, Ian (2008) The Near and Distant God: Poetry, Idealism and Religious Thought from Hölderlin to Eliot. Legenda, Oxford, UK, 194 pp. ISBN 978-1-906540-00-5. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:30299)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
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http://www.legendabooks.com/titles/isbn/9781906540...

Abstract

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.

Item Type: Book
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PT German literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Fiona Symes
Date Deposited: 28 Aug 2012 14:07 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:08 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30299 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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