Anagnorisis : scenes and themes of recognition and revelation in Western literature / Piero Boitani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boitani, Piero, author.

Series:

Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 204.

Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 204

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Recognition in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021]

Summary:

Anagnorisis has been called 'one of the great works of comparative literary criticism of our time'. It is a book that spans the millennia, the adventures of Ulysses in Homer and God's mysterious appearance to Abraham in Genesis, down not only to Joyce's Ulysses and Thomas Mann's Joseph and his Brothers , but also to Dumas' Count of Montecristo , Borges's 'The Immortal', and Walcott's Omeros. 'Anagnorisis' means 'recognition'. Aristotle defined it simply as 'the passage from ignorance to knowledge'. But the knowledge one gains in anagnorisis is neither scientific nor abstract - it is living knowledge in the flesh, as Euripides' Helen understood when, seeing her husband again after many years, she exclaimed: 'to recognize those we love is a god.

Contents:

Preface / Anagnorisis

1 Odysseus, Ulysses, Nobody / The Universe of Recognition

2 Reason

Electra and Hamlet

3 Towards Nothingness

Oedipus and Lear

4 Recognizing God

5 To Recognize Is a God

Helen, Magdalen, Hermione, Marina - Menuchim

6 A Spark of Love

Medieval Recognitions

7 I know the Signs of the Ancient Flame

Dante's Recognitions

8 Are You Here?

Brunetto, Dante, and Eliot

9 Through Time and Space

Intertextual Recognition

10 To Conclude and Re-Cognize

The Pain and Joy of Compassion

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-45367-9

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004453678 DOI