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Reviewed by:
  • Voegelinian Readings of Modern Literature
  • Trevor Shelley
Charles R. Embry , ed. Voegelinian Readings of Modern Literature. Columbia, MO: U of Missouri P, 2011. 295 pp.

This volume consists of essays exploring works of literature by the following ten modern artists: Elizabeth Bishop, Henrik Ibsen, Choderlos de Laclos, Dazai Osamu, Stefan George, Thomas Carlyle, D. H. Lawrence, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Hermann Broch. As disparate as the list may seem, the essayists share two views, in addition to their general love of literature, that substantiate the collection as a whole. First, all agree that "the best literature—certainly in the modern era—has philosophical and moral dimensions" and that neglect of such literature amounts to privation in the study of human existence. Second, each believes that the philosophy of Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) "proffers insights that illumine searches for the truth of human existence" when brought to bear on the study of literature. The aim of a "Voegelinian Reading" of literature is summarized by what Voegelin wrote in 1956 in a letter to his friend, Robert H. Heilman, literary critic and scholar: "The occupation with works of art, poetry, philosophy, mystical imagination, and so forth, makes sense only if it is conducted as an inquiry into the nature of man."

In so seeking to better understand "the nature of man," however, these Voegelinian readings proceed by adopting and applying the often highly technical and unfamiliar language of Voegelin's own philosophy. Thus, the prerequisite for truly appreciating these essays is having first read Voegelin oneself, acquiring an understanding of his philosophy of reality, consciousness, and history. This raises the question as to whether a "naïve" reading of literature might not be preferable—that is, reading without any presuppositions, apparatus, or concepts other than what are intentionally provided by the original author's own text. Should not an inquiry into the nature of man be conducted in natural language accessible to all human beings? Or, contrarily, must one first master and be able to apply, say, a philosophy of consciousness (Voegelinian or otherwise) before really arriving at insights [End Page 414] from modern literature? Voegelin's own method aimed at following what he called the "trail of symbols" left behind in texts as evoked from human experience, with the intent of identifying and understanding the constancy of certain fundamental experiences. This is hardly the place to settle the matter on how best to read literature, with or without Voegelin's guidance. Whatever the case, non-initiates will find some help in the efforts of each essayist to combine textual exegesis with explanation of Voegelin's philosophy.

In a dense and regretfully brief introductory essay (a mere six pages), Embry writes that the "best of modern literature...demonstrates a struggle to recover order from the disordered environment, and the works and authors examined in this collection of essays all symbolize the struggle to understand and the hope to recover order from the disorder of our age." The essays are arranged into three thematic parts. The first group, entitled, "Pneumopathology and the Individual Consciousness," explore how certain spiritual diseases, or disorders of the soul, have dramatic and personal consequences. David Palmieri discusses how Bishop's struggle with and resistance to biblical imagery "left her imagination cold and her universe-consciousness disordered," and that her life and work "lay bare the uncomfortable fact that the reformulation of the symbols by which we as Westerners understand the interrelationship of God, the world, man, and society is not an innocent undertaking." Henrik Syse and Tor Richardsen contend that Ibsen's plays, "read as dramatic corollaries to Voegelin's works," make clear just how "hard [the] task given to human beings" truly is in modern circumstances, when trying to live a decent life "between materialistic self-indulgence and fanatical idealism." Polly Detels suggests that de Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereuses offers insights into the "wickedness of reason and deformed consciousness," and as a whole is an exemplary "story of the soul's closure to God."

The second part—"The Loss of Public Order and the Search for Its Recovery"—discusses literary responses to modernity's disorder and the creative means sought to recover what...

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