{"product_id":"the-classic-vision-the-retreat-from-extremity-in-modern-literature-paperback","title":"The Classic Vision: The Retreat from Extremity in Modern Literature - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMurray Krieger\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn an earlier book Professor Krieger discussed the tragic vision as the confrontation with extremity--the writer's commitment to a master metaphor even as he acknowledges the incompleteness of that metaphor. The term \"classic\" is used here to indicate \"the sense of restraint, of acceptance, of coming to terms with limitations self-imposed--as well as the awareness of the alternative one rejects in turning away from self-indulgence.\" The writer is thus viewed as one who accepts the common use of language while he endeavors to defy it through metaphor, one who accepts classically the common lot of man whereas his tragic impulse would lead him to reject it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProfessor Krieger begins with the Renaissance lyric, which for him represents both the last moment of union and the first moment of collision between the classic and tragic visions in literature. He then moves through poems, novels, and a play, ranging in time from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and delineates four kinds of retreat from extremity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the works of Pope and Samuel Johnson he finds retreat through the worship of bloodless abstractions. The second form of retreat is the embrace of the natural human community, and the focus is on Wordsworth, George Eliot, Jane Austen, and Anthony Trollope. Through analyses of Sterne's \u003ci\u003eTristram Shandy\u003c\/i\u003e, Robert Penn Warren's \u003ci\u003eAll the King's Men\u003c\/i\u003e, and works by Swift, Professor Krieger demonstrates retreat through acceptance of the \"human barnyard.\" The final form of retreat, through an alternative to sainthood, is shown in Faulkner's \u003ci\u003eLight in August\u003c\/i\u003e and T. S. Eliot's \u003ci\u003eMurder in the Cathedral\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn each case, Professor Krieger finds, by analyzing the pervading metaphor one is confronted with a counter-metaphor that mysteriously asserts itself: \"The metaphors may have been unmetaphored, but they remain forms of imagination that constitute a reality, though it is now seen as imperfect. As such forms, the metaphors sustain us still. And that is perhaps the most classic notion of all.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMurray Krieger\u003c\/b\u003e is University Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. His many books include \u003ci\u003eEkphrasis: The Illusion of the Natural Sign\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWords about Words about Words: Theory, Criticism, and the Literary Text\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 390\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.07 x 9 x 6.03 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 19, 1973\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42131387908231,"sku":"9780801815515","price":56.34,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/c00ef1be871acb0c6b2304d4d22c5b08.webp?v=1732618580","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/the-classic-vision-the-retreat-from-extremity-in-modern-literature-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}