 | Prophetic Witness and the Reimagining of the World: Poetry, Theology and Philosophy in Dialogue- Power of the Word V Subjects: Humanities; Language & Literature; Religion; Philosophy; Literature; Aesthetics; Interdisciplinary Literary Studies; Christianity; Religion in Context; Literary Genres; This book explores the prophetic characteristics of literature, particularly poetry, that seek to reimagine the world in which it is written. Using theological and philosophical insights it charts the relentless impulse of literature to propose alternative visions, practicable or utopian, and point toward possibilities of renewal and change. Drawing from each of the three main Abrahamic religions, as well as Greek and Latin classics, an international group of scholars utilise a diverse range of analytical and interpretive methods to draw out the prophetic voice in poetry. Looking at the writings of figures like T. S. Elliot, Blake, Wittgenstein and Isaiah, the theme of the prophetic is shown to be of timely importance given the current state of geo-political challenges and uncertainties and offers a much-needed critical discussion of these broad cultural questions. This collection of essays offers readers an insight into the constructive power of literature. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars working in Religion and the Arts, Religious Studies, Theology and Aesthetics. Mark S. Burrows is Professor of Religion and Literature at the University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany, as well as a poet and translator of German literature. His academic work explores the horizon of Christian spirituality, with a research focus on the intersection of mysticism and poetics. His new translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's Book of Hours, Part I, appeared in 2016 (Prayers of a Young Poet), and in 2014 he published a collection by the Iranian-German poet SAID (99 psalms). The Chance of Home, a collection of his poems, appeared in 2018, and together with Jon M. Sweeney he has published two recent volumes of poems inspired by Meister Eckhart: Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart (2017) and Meister Eckhart's Book of Secrets (2019). He co-edited, with Jean Ward and Małgorzata Grzegorzewska, the third volume in "The Power of the Word" series, Poetic Revelations. Word Made Flesh Made Word; Routledge, 2017. Hilary Davies has published four collections of poetry from Enitharmon: the latest, Exile and the Kingdom, was published in November 2016. She is also a translator, essayist and critic. Hilary has won an Eric Gregory award, been a Hawthornden Fellow, has served as Chairman of the Poetry Society of Great Britain and is a Fellow of the English Association. From 2012 to 2016 she was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King's College, London and in 2018 - 9 at the British Library . Josephine von Zitzewitz is Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow in Russian Literature at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway in Tromso, having previously held research and teaching appointments at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Bristol. A specialist in 20th century poetry, she is the author of Poetry and the Leningrad Religious-Philosophical Seminar 1976-1980: Music for a Deaf Age (Legenda/MHRA and Routledge, 2016) and numerous articles on underground literature in the late Soviet Union. Her new book, The Culture of Samizdat: Literature and Underground Networks in the Late Soviet Union, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury (2020). |
