Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western WorldSimon & Schuster, 1996 - 492 Seiten At the age of forty-eight, film critic David Denby, dissatisfied with his life within the media bubble, went back to Columbia University and took again the two famous courses in Western classics (Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization) required of all students--courses he first took in 1961. In recent years, collections of literary and philosophical masterpieces such as those taught in these courses have been reviled by the left as oppressive and exclusionary and adored by the right as bulwarks of patriotism. Denby, the film critic for New York magazine, wanted to dispel these cliches and to confront the books in their naked power; he wanted to find the self he had lost in a daze of media images. In Great Books, Denby lives the common adult fantasy of returning to school with some worldly knowledge and experience of life. A gifted storyteller, he leads us on a glorious tour--by turns eloquent, witty, and moving--through the works themselves and through his experiences as a middle-aged man among freshmen. He recounts his failures and triumphs as a reader and student (taking an exam led to a hilarious near-breakdown). He celebrates his rediscovery or new appreciation of such authors as Homer, Plato, the biblical writers, Augustine, Boccaccio, Hegel, Austen, Marx, Nietzsche, and Virginia Woolf. He re-creates the atmosphere of the classroom--the strategies used by a remarkable group of teachers and the strengths and weaknesses of media-age students as they grapple with these difficult, sometimes frightening works. And all year long he watches the students grow and his own life and memories break out of hiding. The result is an extraordinarily engaging blend ofcriticism, reporting, autobiography, and cultural commentary, a book about self-discovery. Denby offers a nonprofessor's look at life on campus; he addresses the vexing questions of political correctness and relativism, and he suggests that a larger crisis surrounds the teaching of the humanities. A liberal defending the canon, Denby places literature in its revolutionary role as the source of powerful stories--the most powerful stories that we tell about ourselves. For the reader who once read these works, the book is a brilliant reprise; for the reader unfamiliar with them, Great Books offers an irresistible introduction. By the end, the great works are revealed again in their power to disturb and give pleasure. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-3 von 64
Seite 80
... head she arranged the curling locks that hung down like hyacinthine petals . ( VI , 224–31 ) ... so Athene gilded with grace his head and his shoulders , and he went a little aside and sat by himself on the seashore , radiant in grace ...
... head she arranged the curling locks that hung down like hyacinthine petals . ( VI , 224–31 ) ... so Athene gilded with grace his head and his shoulders , and he went a little aside and sat by himself on the seashore , radiant in grace ...
Seite 173
... head back and smiled , swinging back and forth in time to the words , which rolled out in endless waves . He played the drums and other instruments , and when he appeared in class with dark glasses , swaying as he spoke , he reminded me ...
... head back and smiled , swinging back and forth in time to the words , which rolled out in endless waves . He played the drums and other instruments , and when he appeared in class with dark glasses , swaying as he spoke , he reminded me ...
Seite 182
... head . " Why are you holding your head ? ” " Paradox , " said Sterngold , irritably . " Yes , paradox makes you hold your head . Look , Miss Sterngold , no one is trying to convert you . That's not what we do here . You may doubt that ...
... head . " Why are you holding your head ? ” " Paradox , " said Sterngold , irritably . " Yes , paradox makes you hold your head . Look , Miss Sterngold , no one is trying to convert you . That's not what we do here . You may doubt that ...
Inhalt
Introduction | 11 |
Reading Lists | 21 |
FIRST SEMESTER | 27 |
Urheberrecht | |
41 weitere Abschnitte werden nicht angezeigt.
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
academic Aeschylus American asked become beginning believe body called Christian civilization Columbia course created critic culture dark death desire earlier early everything existence experience fall fear feel felt force freedom give Greek hand head hold human idea ideal insisted interest kill kind King knew later least Lit Hum literature live looked male means mind moral moved nature never night notion perhaps person Plato play pleasure poem political possible Professor question reader reason remark seemed sense Shapiro side social society speak spirit spoke Stephanson story talk Tayler tell things thought tion truth turned understand universal wanted Western woman women Woolf writing York young