The living moment
Subtitle: modernism in a broken world
By: Jeffrey Hart
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Evanston, Ill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 167
ISBN-13: 9780810128217
Subjects: Modernism (Literature); History and criticism; Modern Literature
Description: In the spirit of Lionel Trilling, Edmund Wilson, and Susan Sontag, the renowned literary critic Jeffrey Hart writes The Living Moment, a close reading of literature as it intersects with the political. Hart's book is an even-handed guide for anyone toddling into the mists of the modernist moment, effortlessly moving between such modernist monuments as Eliot's "(BThe Waste Land," Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Mann's Doctor Faustus, and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Hart's most stunning achievement is his brilliant inclusion of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead as a modernist text, for the way the novel teaches us to see more, to hear more, to feel more. Hart's dazzling study is an examination of important works of literature as they explore the experience of living in a broken world with thought and sometimes with examples of resolve that possess permanent validity. The Living Moment is for anyone who is wearied by so much of today's trendy, narrow, and ideologically driven criticism.
Table of contents: title: The living moment; title: Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot: modernisms; title: F. Scott Fitzgerald: a capacity for wonder; title: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and The sun also rises; title: Hemingway's best novel; title: Gilead: a rumor of angels; title: Mann's Doctor Faustus: the moment in the depths of silence.