Pen of Iron

American Prose and the King James Bible
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-691-12881-8
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 434 g

The simple yet grand language of the King James Bible has pervaded American culture from the beginning--and its powerful eloquence continues to be felt even today. In this book, acclaimed biblical translator and literary critic Robert Alter traces some of the fascinating ways that American novelists--from Melville, Hemingway, and Faulkner to Bellow, Marilynne Robinson, and Cormac McCarthy--have drawn on the rich stylistic resources of the canonical English Bible to fashion their own strongly resonant styles and distinctive visions of reality. Showing the radically different manners in which the words, idioms, syntax, and cadences of this Bible are woven into Moby-Dick, Absalom, Absalom!, The Sun Also Rises, Seize the Day, Gilead, and The Road, Alter reveals the wide variety of stylistic and imaginative possibilities that American novelists have found in Scripture. At the same time, Alter demonstrates the importance of looking closely at the style of literary works, making the case that style is not merely an aesthetic phenomenon but is the very medium through which writers conceive their worlds.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Alter, Robert

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Rezeption, literarische Einflüsse und Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments ix

Prelude: America as a Scriptural Culture 1

Chapter 1: Style in America and the King James Version 9

Chapter 2: Moby- Dick Polyphony 42

Chapter 3: Absalom, Absalom! Lexicon 78

Chapter 4: Seize the Day American Amalgam 114

Chapter 5: The World through Parataxis 146

Index 185

Über Autor(innen)

Alter, Robert
Robert Alter has taught Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1967. The author of more than twenty books, he has also published four volumes of Bible translation, most recently "The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary" (Norton). In 2009, Alter received the Robert Kirsch Award from the "Los Angeles Times" for lifetime contribution to American letters.