Incarnation & metamorphosis : can literature change us? / David Mason.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mason, David, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Genre:

Essays.

Literary criticism.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

226 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First Paul Dry Books edition.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Paul Dry Books, 2023.

Summary:

'"Literary criticism," David Mason writes, "ought to entertain as well as illuminate." In these essays Mason tells stories about embodiment and change, incarnation and metamorphosis, drawing connections between art and life without confusing the two. Mason considers the many kinds of change we encounter in our lives, our desire for justice, and the ways great writers complicate that desire. He discusses the lives and works of Montaigne, Diderot, and Neruda, as well as his colorful father's fascination with a fictional character. He takes up such contemporary figures as the daring Australian writer Helen Garner, the playwright Tom Stoppard, and the poet-critic Dana Gioia; and he has fresh things to say about the perils of fame in the careers of Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney and mourns the loss of poet Michael Donaghy. Incarnation & Metamorphosis is a book about living with literature--Mason writes that literature tells "us that we are seen, warts and all. Criticism, such as the essays in this book, is a way of seeing back."'--Page [4] of cover.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE The Way of Literature

Incarnation & Metamorphosis: An Essay in Metaphors

At Home in the Imaginal

The Minefield and the Soul: Notes on Identity and Literature

Poet and Moralist: Claudia Rankine and Kay Ryan

Daughters of Memory: The Sibling Rivalry of History and Poetry

Beloved Immoralist: One Man's Love of a Fictional Character

pt. TWO Voices, Dead and Living

The Freedom of Montaigne

Digging Up Diderot

Neruda's Voice

The Perils of Fame: Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney

Homage to Tom Stoppard

Two Poet-Critics: Clive James and John Burnside

The Searching Stories of Helen Garner

Robert Stone and American Wreckage

The Inner Exile of Dana Gioia

"The Song Is Drowned": Michael Donaghy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781589881723

1589881729

OCLC:

1315739603