num_pages: 216
description: “Long an advocate of ‘the need for cul- William James. Ultimately, ina discus- tural renewal’ through the merger of sion that takes into account the thought humanistic and scientific values, Ted R. and emotion of Emerson, Kierkegaard, Spivey in The Writer as Shaman boldly Freud, Jung, Buber, Heidegger, and of parallels the prophetic quests for tran- various Oriental philosophers as well, scendent meaning made by two Ameri- Spivey discovers in the work of Aiken can ‘pilgrims,’ Conrad Aiken and and Percy a comprehensive vision of a Walker Percy, in the face of the cultural mode of communication that, at once chaos of the twentieth century. Al- intellectual and spiritual, offers the though the reader may initially doubt, possibility of redemption from our even resist, the idea of pairing Aiken psychic isolation in a society of special- and Percy, he will find Spivey’s Wide- ized function by the restoration of mm"s ranging study to be not only a plausible capacity to seek a transcending cul- but also a convincing demonstration of tural harmony. A book that acknowl- the logical necessity ofbringing these edges today’s fashions, yet is two ‘authentic men of letters’ into a independent of them, The Writer as common focus. Spivey proceeds in part Shaman demands the attention of stu- by a striking argument in which he dents of modern literature, philosophy, shows how the motives of Aiken and and history, both American and Euro- Percy are related to the concept of pean.”—Lewis P. Simpson, Editor, The ‘American liberalism’ as it issued in Southern Review
language: English
title: The Writer As Shaman: The Pilgrimages of Conrad Aiken and Walker Percy
titlecomplete: The Writer As Shaman: The Pilgrimages of Conrad Aiken and Walker Percy
ratings_count: 4
publisher: Mercer Univ Pr