The saving lie : Harold Bloom and deconstruction / Agata Bielik-Robson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bielik-Robson, Agata.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bloom, Harold.

Criticism--United States--History--20th century.

Criticism.

United States.

History.

Literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Literature.

Deconstruction.

Romanticism.

Jews--Intellectual life.

Jews.

Physical Description:

x, 403 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Hailed as our era's most profound theorist of literary influence, Harold Bloom's own influence on the landscape of literary criticism has been decisive. His wide-ranging critical writings have plumbed the depths of Romanticism, explored the anxiety caused by the influence of one generation of poets on another, wrestled with the idea of a literary canon, and examined the relationship between religion and literature.

In this unprecedented full-length study on Harold Bloom, Agata Bielik-Robson explores the many facets of Bloom's critical writings and career. In his work, she argues, Bloom draws on a variety of disparate traditions-Judaism, Gnosis, romanticism, American pragmatism, and Freudianism, but also, especially recently, Victorian Aestheticism-that constitute a dialectical, difficult whole in constant quarrel with itself. The Saving Lie brings all these aspects of Bloom's thought together, revealing the organizing thread of "antithetical vitalism" that animates his work. Tracing the development of Bloom's vision of "life-in-antithesis" through a series of highly original and compelling readings, Bielik-Robson offers a much-needed reevaluation of a deeply complex and controversial figure. This pioneering study of Bloom and his contributions will not soon be surpassed. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The Antithetical Quester

Chapter 1 Life in Agon: From Romanticism to Deconstruction and Beyond 33

Chapter 2 Literary Lie and Philosophical Truth: Tarrying with the Deconstruction 75

Part II Agon with the Deadly Angels

Chapter 3 Life and Death in Deconstruction: From Hegel to de Man 109

Chapter 4 The Davharocentric Subject, or Narcissism Reconsidered: Bloom Versus Derrida 189

Part III Wrestling Harold

Chapter 5 Intricate Evasions, or the Poetic Will-to-Ignorance 231

Chapter 6 Fair Crossings: From Mere Life to More Life 259

Chapter 7 Tainted Love: A Psycho-Kabbalistic Reading of the Poetic Scene of Instruction 291.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780810127289

0810127288

9780810127869

0810127865

OCLC:

630480212