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OverviewThis book studies several of Mark Helprin’s novels in terms of their relation to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The authors demonstrate that A Soldier of the Great War, In Sunlight and in Shadow, and Winter’s Tale substantially correspond to, respectively, Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The author himself has acknowledged his debt to Dante and references to the Comedy appear throughout his works. It is not that Helprin’s novels track their Dantean antecedents slavishly, or even follow the structure of the Canticles explicitly. Rather, the central arguments of Dante’s three works are taken up by Helprin in his novels. In adopting Dante’s essentially Platonic doctrine of mediation, Helprin’s characters are fully instantiated human beings who also mediate and reveal the divine. In his engagement with Dante, Helprin affirms the core philosophical, theological and psychological arguments of the Comedy, and then modifies those arguments in a distinctly modern way. Specifically, Helprin focuses on human freedom as the necessary precondition for justice to exist, both for individuals and for societies. In the final chapter of the book, the authors turn to Helprin’s Freddy and Fredericka. In this novel, Helprin both assumes Dante’s argument, and then radically alters it, by pointing to the possibility of a just regime on earth, rather than one that exists merely in heaven. While accepting much of Dante’s metaphysical argument, Helprin shows the virtues of liberal democracy as that form of political regime that is most able to unite human eros with eternal principles. In the end, Helprin’s novels are remarkable for the way in which they advocate for ancient virtues, while insisting upon the distinctly modern liberal account of human freedom as the necessary foundation for human flourishing. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Sara MacDonald , Barry CraigPublisher: Lexington Books Imprint: Lexington Books Dimensions: Width: 16.20cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 23.60cm Weight: 0.386kg ISBN: 9780739181966ISBN 10: 0739181963 Pages: 166 Publication Date: 12 November 2014 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Table of ContentsTable of Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Soldiering Through Inferno Chapter 2: The Habit of Love Chapter 3: The City of Justice Chapter 4: A Defense of the Democratic Regime Endnotes Bibliography About the AuthorsReviewsIn their own imitation of Dante's Virgil, MacDonald and Craig rescue novelist Mark Helprin from the thicket of shallow misinterpretation and present him in all his philosophic depth while preserving his artistic splendor. Without a trace of didacticism, they explore some of Helprin's major novels together with Dante's Divine Comedy, and portray how he and Dante speak to the same longings of the heart. Their pathbreaking study is no tendentious interpretation, but a philosophic and imaginative inquiry and is unhesitatingly recommended for all who love Mark Helprin's writing and serious students of the modern novel and classical literature. -- Ken Masugi, Johns Hopkins University Throughout their book, our authors present a carefully nuanced view of the relationship between Dante and Helprin. Interpretation In their own imitation of Dante's Virgil, MacDonald and Craig rescue novelist Mark Helprin from the thicket of shallow misinterpretation and present him in all his philosophic depth while preserving his artistic splendor. Without a trace of didacticism, they explore some of Helprin's major novels together with Dante's Divine Comedy, and portray how he and Dante speak to the same longings of the heart. Their pathbreaking study is no tendentious interpretation, but a philosophic and imaginative inquiry and is unhesitatingly recommended for all who love Mark Helprin's writing and serious students of the modern novel and classical literature. -- Ken Masugi, Johns Hopkins University Author InformationSara MacDonald is professor and director of the Great Books Program at St. Thomas University. Barry Craig is professor and academic vice-president at St. Thomas University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |