Reading an Erased Code: Romantic Religion and Literary Aesthetics in France - Couverture souple

Despland, Michel

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1487571682 ISBN 13 : 9781487571689

Editeur : University of Toronto Press, 1994

Synopsis

The end of the eighteenth century, an age of political and cultural crisis particularly in France, saw a shift in the meaning of belief. Simply put, a break in continuity occurred between the old, religious and a new, literary reading of Scripture. Michel Despland selects five writers who were caught up in this new reading of the old religious text and who came to write about religion in innovative ways: Jean-Jacques Roussean, François-René de Chateaubriand, Charles Nodier, Alfred de Vigny, and Gérard de Nerval. Their use of the autobiographical voice, and of a range of literary devices that encouraged the distanciation of readers from what they read, brought about a profound transmutation of religious writing. The old code of orthodoxy -- what was traditionally believed and socially confirmed -- was replaced with a more readable, personal text.

The five writers treated by Despland helped shape a broader definition of belief, on that included individual sensibility. The works they produced are, in a sense, new religious texts. They did not just restate or reinterpret the code, but achieved a new kind of narrative, which has become dominant in the modern era and has shaped individual relationships to all codes.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Michel Despland is a professor in the Department of Religion, Concordia University.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Toronto Press
• Date d'édition: 1994
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1487571682
• ISBN 13: 9781487571689
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 232
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible