Reconstructing literature in an ideological age
Subtitle: a biblical poetics and literary studies from Milton to Burke
By: Daniel E. Ritchie.
Publisher: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Grand Rapids, MI
Language: eng
Number of pages: 302
Subjects: Bible -- Language, style.; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; Religion and literature.; English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; Christian literature, English -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; Christianity and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century.; Christianity and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Poetics -- History -- 17th century.; Poetics -- History -- 18th century.; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 17th century.
Description: While many literary scholars consider feminism, deconstruction, and multiculturalism new avenues to truth, other readers find that such prior ideological commitments distort literature. In Reconstructing Literature in an Ideological Age, Daniel E.

Ritchie offers a "biblical poetics" as an alternative approach to ideological criticism, exploring how the Bible's own negotiations with language affect our view of literature, specifically with respect to older texts, gender issues, ethnic diversity, and the apparent arbitrariness of language itself.

Focusing here on Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, Ritchie examines how a biblical poetics provides a basis for literary study in the texts of Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, John Milton, Edmund Burke, and Alexander Pope, and he contrasts it to recent ideological approaches to these texts. Ritchie's biblical treatment of particular literary issues provides the basis for original historical research or literary interpretation often sharply at odds with current critical theories.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.