Wonder Strikes: Approaching Aesthetics and Literature with William Desmond

Author:   Steven E. Knepper ,  William Desmond
Publisher:   State University of New York Press
ISBN:  

9781438489568


Pages:   293
Publication Date:   02 January 2023
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Wonder Strikes: Approaching Aesthetics and Literature with William Desmond


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Overview

"William Desmond argues that philosophy, religion, and art begin in wonder. Desmond is widely recognized for his original metaphysics and his provocative philosophy of religion. Desmond's extensive writings on aesthetics, art, and literature, however, have received much less attention. Wonder Strikes is the first book-length examination of these dimensions of Desmond's thought. It offers nuanced commentary on his treatment of beauty and the sublime; his accounts of tragedy and comedy; and his argument that, having asked ""too much"" of art in modernity, we now ask ""too little."" Desmond claims that art, philosophy, and religion must recover their ancient kinship and their shared roots in wonder if they are to counter the destructive instrumentalism of our time."

Full Product Details

Author:   Steven E. Knepper ,  William Desmond
Publisher:   State University of New York Press
Imprint:   State University of New York Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.227kg
ISBN:  

9781438489568


ISBN 10:   1438489560
Pages:   293
Publication Date:   02 January 2023
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Foreword by William Desmond Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Incarnate Wonder 1. Aesthetics in Flesh, Image, and Word Receptivity Abundance Affirmation Wonder 2. The Call of Beauty Call and Response Between Beauty and the Sublime Will Beauty Save the World? 3. The Artist and the Between Between Imitation and Creation Between Inspiration and Skill Between Tradition and the Individual Talent 4. Sacred Aesthetics Hierophany The Sacred in a Time of Serviceable Disposability God's Grandeur Poetry, Prayer, and the Unsayable Asking Too Much, Asking Too Little Part II: Reading in the Between 5. Epiphanic Encounters Criticism in the Metaxu From Recognition to Epiphany Epiphanic Things The Poetry of Place 6. Tragic Howls and Being at a Loss Macbeth, the Sleepless Tyrant Lear, the Sleepwalking Sovereign Philosophy at a Loss 7. Redemptive Laughs and Festive Rebirth Laughter and Affirmation Ahab's Absent Laugh Can Philosophy Laugh at Itself? The Festive in a Time of Need Scrooge and Festive Anamnesis Conclusion Notes Bibliography Name Index

Reviews

"""…Wonder Strikes … is a book written with a marvelous clarity of detail—in a clear, knowledgeable, and persuasive language. It provides both an excellent introduction for those not familiar with Desmond's thought, and an equally excellent demonstration of how that thinking can be fruitfully applied to literary texts. It is a pioneering work in this field."" — VoegelinView ""…Knepper performs a valuable service in making Desmond's thought on the subject more accessible to those who might otherwise be less likely to discover it. The recovery of beauty as one of God's many gifts to us is still ongoing, and any work that contributes to that recovery is one for which we should be grateful."" — Front Porch Republic ""Wonder Strikes would serve very well as an overall introduction to my work, as well as a particular illumination of its aesthetic concerns, and all through the elegant writing of a thinker whose attentive mind and searching grasp add to the exploration their own eloquent thoughtfulness. I would recommend the work as an excellent introduction in those terms, and yet it has its own singular register, which comes across through its special focus on aesthetic concerns."" — William Desmond, from the foreword ""Knepper has written a beautifully crafted study of the work of William Desmond, particularly the thread within the distinguished Irish philosopher's work concerned with how and why philosophy relates to art and religion and how it is impoverished without having constructive relations with them, even if it is not determined by either. Wonder Strikes is not only informative and judicious in its selections of topics in Desmond and apt in quotation, it is throughout a pleasure to read."" — Cyril O'Regan, University of Notre Dame ""A dynamic cross-section between art, philosophy, and religion requires a kind of existential attunement. One's voice from a particular field—if it is to say anything meaningful about that mysterious space of transcendence—must be open to irreducible richness of multiplying voices from the other fields. Only then, one can strike a harmony where one's reciprocity with others is a liberating symphony. Knepper's Wonder Strikes is saturated with such transformative voicing of the intermediation between literature, philosophy, and religion. More than just illustrating Desmond's concepts, his attentiveness to the literary particulars shows a distinct way forward for metaxological thinkers."" — Takeshi Morisato, University of Edinburgh ""Two decades after the 'religious turn' in literary studies, Steven E. Knepper reports on its various pathways and evaluates its affordances and limitations. William Desmond's thought illuminates this investigation with the critical insight that art, philosophy, and religion necessarily interanimate each other. Knepper is the rare scholar capable of taking this directive and cultivating it across these disciplines, plus political and social theory. Much more than an adroit guide to Desmond's oeuvre, Wonder Strikes critically synthesizes recent ventures in the reenchantment of the world while constructively articulating key features of this adventure: epiphany, tragedy, and laughter. In his lucid, creative animation of recent theoretical, theological, and philosophical insights, Knepper inspires the kind of delight and wonder with which David Lodge's Small World must have struck its academic readers in 1984. Like that 'academic romance,' Wonder Strikes makes happy beach reading for anybody who intuits that literature, philosophy, and religion need each other."" — Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh, and director of the Genealogies of Modernity Project"


Wonder Strikes would serve very well as an overall introduction to my work, as well as a particular illumination of its aesthetic concerns, and all through the elegant writing of a thinker whose attentive mind and searching grasp add to the exploration their own eloquent thoughtfulness. I would recommend the work as an excellent introduction in those terms, and yet it has its own singular register, which comes across through its special focus on aesthetic concerns. - William Desmond, from the foreword Knepper has written a beautifully crafted study of the work of William Desmond, particularly the thread within the distinguished Irish philosopher's work concerned with how and why philosophy relates to art and religion and how it is impoverished without having constructive relations with them, even if it is not determined by either. Wonder Strikes is not only informative and judicious in its selections of topics in Desmond and apt in quotation, it is throughout a pleasure to read. - Cyril O'Regan, University of Notre Dame A dynamic cross-section between art, philosophy, and religion requires a kind of existential attunement. One's voice from a particular field-if it is to say anything meaningful about that mysterious space of transcendence-must be open to irreducible richness of multiplying voices from the other fields. Only then, one can strike a harmony where one's reciprocity with others is a liberating symphony. Knepper's Wonder Strikes is saturated with such transformative voicing of the intermediation between literature, philosophy, and religion. More than just illustrating Desmond's concepts, his attentiveness to the literary particulars shows a distinct way forward for metaxological thinkers. - Takeshi Morisato, University of Edinburgh Two decades after the 'religious turn' in literary studies, Steven E. Knepper reports on its various pathways and evaluates its affordances and limitations. William Desmond's thought illuminates this investigation with the critical insight that art, philosophy, and religion necessarily interanimate each other. Knepper is the rare scholar capable of taking this directive and cultivating it across these disciplines, plus political and social theory. Much more than an adroit guide to Desmond's oeuvre, Wonder Strikes critically synthesizes recent ventures in the reenchantment of the world while constructively articulating key features of this adventure: epiphany, tragedy, and laughter. In his lucid, creative animation of recent theoretical, theological, and philosophical insights, Knepper inspires the kind of delight and wonder with which David Lodge's Small World must have struck its academic readers in 1984. Like that 'academic romance,' Wonder Strikes makes happy beach reading for anybody who intuits that literature, philosophy, and religion need each other. - Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh, and director of the Genealogies of Modernity Project


Author Information

Steven E. Knepper is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies at the Virginia Military Institute.

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