Böcker av Theodore Ziolkowski

In Uses and Abuses of Moses, Theodore Ziolkowski surveys the major literary treatments of the biblical figure of Moses since the Enlightenment. Beginning with the influential treatments by Schiller and Goethe, for whom Moses was, respectively, a member of a mystery cult and a violent murderer, Ziolkowski examines an impressive array of dramas, poems, operas, novels, and films to show the many ways in which the charismatic figure of Moses has been exploited-the "e;uses and abuses"e; of the title-to serve a variety of ideological and cultural purposes. Ziolkowski's wide-ranging and in-depth study compares and analyzes the attempts by nearly one hundred writers to fill in the gaps in the biblical account of Moses' life and to explain his motivation as a leader, lawgiver, and prophet. As Ziolkowski richly demonstrates, Moses' image has been affected by historical factors such as the Egyptomania of the 1820s, the revolutionary movements of the mid-nineteenth century, the early move toward black liberation in the United States, and critical biblical scholarship of the late nineteenth century before, in the twentieth century, being appropriated by Marxists, Socialists, Nazis, and Freudians. The majority of the works studied are by Austro-German and Anglo-American writers, but Ziolkowski also includes significant examples of works from Hungary, Sweden, Norway, the Ukraine, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, and France. The figure of Moses becomes an animate seismograph, in Ziolkowski's words, through whose literary reception we can trace many of the shifts in the cultural landscape of the past two centuries.

Many novels revolve round the figure of Jesus. Some of the finest of them are defined by Ziolkowski as fictional transfigurations of Jesus. They share a modern hero patterned on Jesus the culture-hero, whose life consisted of the motifs of the last supper, lonely agony, betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. The aesthetic challenge of adapting this most familiar story for their generation has attracted an unusual number of great writers, among them Papini, Kazantzakis, Hesse, Mann, Greene, Faulkner, and Gore Vidal. The form began with the new image of a humanized Jesus which developed in the 19th century. The interest in religious paranoia and hysteria at the turn of the century instantly expanded its potentialities as novelists began to explore the theme of christomania. This was followed by studies of Jesus as a mythic figure and then Marxist-oriented portraits of Comrade Jesus. Finally the form became inverted into parody in the Fifth Gospels in which not Jesus, but Judas, is the central figure.

Explores five institutions - mining, law, madhouses, universities, and museums - that provide the socio-historical context for German Romantic culture. This book shows how German writers and thinkers helped to shape these five institutions, all of which assumed their modern form during the Romantic period.

After much investigation, Ziolkowski reinforces Umberto Eco's notion that the most powerful secret, the magnetic center of conspiracy fiction, is in fact "a secret without content."

The triumph of avant-gardes in the 1920s tends to dominate our discussions of the music, art, and literature of the period. In this book, the author offers a compelling account of that movement. Focusing on the works of Stravinsky, Picasso, and T S Eliot, It shows how the turn to classicism manifested itself.

After much investigation, Ziolkowski reinforces Umberto Eco's notion that the most powerful secret, the magnetic center of conspiracy fiction, is in fact "a secret without content."

In Gilgamesh among Us, Theodore Ziolkowski explores the surprising legacy of the poem and its hero, as well as the epic's continuing influence in modern letters and arts.

Using principles from the anthropological theory of legal evolution, this book locates the works, which reflect crises in the evolution of Western law in their legal contexts and traces through them the gradual dissociation over the centuries of law and morality.

Why, Theodore Ziolkowski wonders, does Western literature abound with figures who experience a crucial moment of uncertainty in their actions? In this highly original and engaging work, he explores the significance of these unlikely heroes for...

"The reasons for the conspicuous popularity of Ovid-his life as well as his works-at the turn of the new millennium bear investigation.... This book speaks of the new bodies assumed in the twentieth century by the poems and tales to which Ovid gave...

"It is not sufficiently appreciated, I believe, how profoundly Clio, the muse of history, permeated every aspect of thought during the Romantic era: philosophy, theology, law, natural science, medicine, and all other fields of intellectual endeavor....