Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief from the Bible to the Present (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)
Taking Oscar Wilde's premise that criticism is "the only civilized form of autobiography," Bloom uses the 1987-88 Norton Lectures to present his personal encounter with Western authors from the author of the Hebrew Bible to Freud and Beckett. Specifically, Bloom considers the poet's struggle with the boundaries of meaning and truth to represent God. He denies, however, that poetry can represent belief. It is instead, he argues, an attempt to represent the unrepresentablethat is, the sublime. The discussion also reexamines Bloom's earlier preoccupation with influence as well as favorite authors such as Blake and Stevens. The result is often provoking, but always stimulating. T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.