Download or read book The Historical Imagination of G K Chesterton written by Joseph R. McCleary and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-02-20 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines a selection of Chesterton’s novels, poetry, and literary criticism and outlines the distinctive philosophy of history that emerges from these writings. Specifically, McCleary contends that Chesterton’s recurring use of the themes of locality, patriotism, and nationalism embodies a distinctive understanding of what gives history its coherence.

Download or read book The Historical Imagination of G K Chesterton written by Joseph R. McCleary and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-02-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines a selection of Chesterton’s novels, poetry, and literary criticism and outlines the distinctive philosophy of history that emerges from these writings. Looking at Chesteron's relationship with and influence upon authors including William Cobbett, Sir Walter Scott, Belloc, Shaw, H.G. Wells, Christopher Dawson, Evelyn Waugh, and Marshall McLuhan, McCleary contends that Chesterton’s recurring use of the themes of locality, patriotism, and nationalism embodies a distinctive understanding of what gives history its coherence. The study concludes that Chesterton’s emphasis on locality is the hallmark of his historical philosophy in that it blends the concepts of free will, specificity, and creatureliness which he uses to make sense of history.

Download or read book Locality Patriotism and Nationalism written by Joseph Robert McCleary and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Locality Patriotism and Nationalism written by Joseph R. McCleary and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English journalist, novelist, poet, critic, and Catholic apologist whose literary production was extensive and varied. Much has been written on Chesterton's distinctive approach to writing: the use of paradox, the attempt to see familiar things in an unfamiliar way, and a tendency to generalize that could produce inaccuracies of detail along with piercing insights. Since he wrote in a time when the writing of history was taking on a greater importance than previously, Chesterton naturally developed attitudes toward this branch of human activity. This dissertation will examine a selection of Chesterton's novels, poetry, and literary criticism and outline the distinctive philosophy of history that emerges from these writings. Specifically, I contend that Chesterton's recurring use of the themes of locality, patriotism, and nationalism embody a distinctive understanding of what gives history its coherence. Chapter I provides a clarification of the terms of locality, patriotism, and nationalism along with an overview of the critical commentary that touches on Chesterton's specifically historical ideas. I refer to the ideas of Hobsbawm, Gellner, and Millon-Delsol to provide a point of reference from figures in the historical profession as opposed to the literary. Chapter 2 examines the influence of Chesterton's literary predecessors William Cobbett and Sir Walter Scott along with the influence of his literary contemporaries Belloc, Shaw, and H.G. Wells. The chapter puts these influences in the context of nineteenth century historical writing with an examination of historians Buckle, Lecky, Green, Froude, and Acton. Chapter 3 examines the way that Chesterton's philosophy of history is articulated in his literary criticism. Specifically, his studies of the Victorian Age in Literature, his criticism of Dickens and Chaucer reflect the essential role he gives to locality in the expression of distinctive qualities of medieval and Victorian periods of English history. Three novels: The Ball and the Cross, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and The Man Who Was Thursday, and two poems: "Lepanto" and "The Ballad of the White Horse", reflect the importance of locality as a key source of human motivation. I contend that this motivation, given expression in patriotic or nationalistic activity, is essential to Chesterton's ability to find coherence in history. Chapter 5 looks ahead to three writers who were influenced by Chesterton's philosophy of history: Christopher Dawson, Evelyn Waugh, and Marshall McLuhan. Further, I examine some of the most influential trends in the theory and practice of historiography in our own day and point out the parallels with Chesterton's approach. The study concludes that Chesterton's emphasis on locality is the hallmark of his historical philosophy in that it blends the concepts of free will, specificity, and creatureliness which he uses to make sense of history--P. [i].

Download or read book The Fantastic Imagination written by George MacDonald and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Fantastic Imagination” is a 1893 essay by Scottish writer George MacDonald (1824–1905). A pioneer of fantasy literature, MacDonald was the mentor of Lewis Carroll and influenced the work of many other notable writers including J. M. Barrie, Mark Twain, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien. This fascinating essay concentrates on writing and imagination, offering expert insights into fantasy and fiction writing by a master of the genre. Highly recommended for fantasy readers and writers alike. Contents include: “George Macdonald, by Richard Watson Gilder”, “Fairy Tales, by G. K. Chesterton”, “The Fantastic Imagination, by George Macdonald”. Other notable works by this author include: “At the Back of the North Wind” (1871), “The Princess and the Goblin” (1872), and “The Wise Woman: A Parable” (1875). Read & Co. Great Essays is republishing this classic essay now complete with an introduction by G. K. Chesterton.

Download or read book Nearer to the Roots of Things written by Susan Jane Byers and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [Truncated abstract] This thesis investigates the role of nature in the political and historical imagination of writer and Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). Chersterton's attitude towards the natural world, expressed in both his fiction and non-fiction, inflected his thinking about economics, national odentity and the role of science and reason in the modern world. Thsi thesis employs the tools of intellectual history to interrogate existing historiography and to explore previously uncharted aspects of Chesterton's work, in particular, the role of 'nature' in his attempted conciliation between free will and determinism. He believed that nature and landsscape influenced human character but denied that geography could be wholly determinative, arguing that it was heresy to cede one's authority to the 'laws of nature'. He believed that modern thinkers were particularly susceptible to bowing before nature through the application of nature's laws to human society. From the style of nationalism that allowed blood to rule distiny to the scientism that established immutable laws to govern human society, everywhere Chesterton looked he saw biology becoming the master of society.

Download or read book Chesterton written by Ralph C Wood and published by . This book was released on 2023-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literary giant G. K. Chesterton is often praised as the "Great Optimist"--God's rotund jester. In this fresh and daring endeavor, Ralph Wood turns a critical eye on Chesterton's corpus to reveal the beef-and-ale believer's darker vision of the world and those who live in it. During an age when the words grace, love, and g ospel, sound more hackneyed than genuine, Wood argues for a recovery of Chesterton's primary contentions: First, that the incarnation of Jesus was necessary reveals a world full not of a righteous creation but of tragedy, terror, and nightmare, and second, that the problem of evil is only compounded by a Christianity that seeks progress, political control, and cultural triumph. Wood's sharp literary critique moves beyond formulaic or overly pious readings to show that, rather than fleeing from the ghoulish horrors of his time, Chesterton located God's mysterious goodness within the existence of evil. Chesterton seeks to reclaim the keen theological voice of this literary authority who wrestled often with the counterclaims of paganism. In doing so, it argues that Christians may have more to learn from the unbelieving world than is often supposed.

Download or read book G K Chesterton written by Michael D. Hurley and published by Northcote House Pub Limited. This book was released on 2012 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revaluation of the vast and vastly varied work of G.K. Chesterton through a literary reading of his philosophy, and a philosophical reading of his fiction. Novelist, essayist, poet, playwright, historian, journalist, Christian apologist, literary and social critic, G.K. Chesterton was one of the most protean and prolific writers of his age, perhaps of any age. Bernard Shaw called him a 'colossal genius.' This study determines the scale and quality of that genius, and considers why he has failed to gain the 'permanent claim on our loyalty' that T.S. Elliot believed he deserved. Interest in Chesterton today tends to be divided between those who enjoy his stories as an end in themselves, and those who argue his unique contribution to metaphysics. By comparing the ethical sympathies and literary style of his work across different genres, Michael D. Hurley brings Chesterton's divided selves together: to show how his achievement as a writer and a thinker are inseparable, and why his philosophy must therefore be read aesthetically, and his fiction read philosophically.

Download or read book The Christian Imagination written by Thomas C. Peters and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a new look at imagination and the arts from the point of view of one of Western civilization's most insightful observers - G.K. Chesterton. Gilbert Chesterton had the rare gift of being able to understand situations from the "inside" - that is, to see through the hidden assumptions, lapses in logic, and other follies of even his own social and occupational situations. He was a journalist, and yet an unsparing critic of journalism. He was a poet, a story-teller, a novelist, a playwright, and an illustrator. Among the most imaginative of men who ever lived, Chesterton had much of value to say about the arts, imagination, and the Christian faith. Thomas Peters takes the reader on a guided tour of Chesterton's observations and opinions regarding human imagination and its various manifestations in the arts. Using ample quotations in order to let Chesterton speak for himself, Peters explores the master's views on imagination, culture, and faith, as well as his fascinating opinions on everything from styles of painting to meter in poetry, from bohemian lifestyles to materialist philosophy, from singing at the bank to waiting for the train.

Download or read book G K Chesterton at the Daily News Part I vol 1 written by Julia Stapleton and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-01 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: G K Chesterton (1874–1936) was an important figure in the Edwardian literary world. He engaged closely with the vibrant new influences in literature and reviewed a stream of new editions, biographies, and memoirs for the Daily News. This critical edition includes all of his contributions to the Daily News from 1901 to 1913.

Download or read book The Dark Side of G K Chesterton written by John C. Tibbetts and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-10-18 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a critical study of the great British man of letters G.K. Chesterton, devoted to the novels, stories and essays that explore the darker fringes of his wild imagination. "Everything is different in the dark," wrote Chesterton; "perhaps you don't know how terrible a truth that is." Chesterton's use of the theme of "gargoyles" provides the thematic structure of the book. It covers the detective stories of Father Brown and others, the locked rooms and miracle crimes in his writing, his status as a science fiction writer, and the riddles and paradoxes of three works--Job, The Man Who Was Thursday, and the play The Surprise. This volume also includes an interlude about Chesterton and Jorge Luis Borges and a robust appendix including interviews about the formation of Ignatius Press's Collected Chesterton.

Download or read book Orthodoxy written by Gilbert Keith Chesterton and published by United Holdings Group. This book was released on 1908 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Complete Father Brown Stories written by G K Chesterton and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-04-05 with total page 1087 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complete adventures of the well-loved clerical sleuth, collected in one brilliant volume. Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success: refusing the scientific method of detection, he adopts instead an approach of simple sympathy, interpreting each crime as a work of art, and each criminal as a man no worse than himself. This complete edition brings together all of the Father Brown stories, including two not previously available in Penguin: 'The Donnington Affair', in which Chesterton rises to the challenge of solving a murder-mystery half written by someone else (Max Pemberton), and 'The Mask of Midas', which was found in Chesterton's papers after his death. It also includes an introduction and notes by Michael D. Hurley. G.K. Chesteron was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best-known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much(1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938. Michael D. Hurley is a Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Catharine's College. He has written widely on English literature from the nineteenth century to the present day, with an emphasis on poetry and poetics. His book on G. K. Chesterton was published in 2011.

Download or read book Seeing Things as They Are written by Duncan Reyburn and published by Lutterworth Press. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The jovial journalist, philosopher, and theologian G.K. Chesterton felt that the world was almost always in permanent danger of being misjudged or even overlooked, and so the pursuit of understanding, insight, and awareness was his perpetual preoccupation. Being sensitive to the boundaries and possibilities of perception, he believed that it really was possible, albeit in a limited way, to see things as they are. Duncan Reyburn, marrying Chesterton's unique perspective with the discipline of philosophical hermeneutics, aims to outline what Chesterton can teach us about reading, interpreting, and participating in the drama of meaning as it unfolds before us in words and in the world. Chesterton's unique interpretive approach seems to be theimplicit fascination of all Chesterton scholarship to date, and yet this book is the first to comprehensively focus on the issue. By taking Chesterton back to his philosophical roots - via his marginalia, his approach to literary criticism, his Platonist-Thomist metaphysics, and his Roman Catholic theology - Reyburn explicitly and compellingly tackles the philosophical assumptions and goals that underpin his unique posture towards reality.

Download or read book The Inklings the Victorians and the Moderns written by Christopher Butynskyi and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Inklings, the Victorians, and the Moderns, the author examines the dynamics of a small group of twentieth-century traditionalists who reacted in opposition to the spirit of the intellectual movements of the modern age. In particular, he draws on the Inklings (e.g., C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien), Christian humanists such as G.K Chesterton, and other proponents of the Great Books and classical liberal learning to outline a position that eschewed reactionary rejections of modern thought, but sought to transcend its perceived limitations by asserting the continued value of myth, religion, liberal education, and ancient texts. They were more than instigators and wished to reconcile and translate conservative traditional ideas within a progressive modern scientific context. The author magnifies the intellectual trends in modern Western thought in the twentieth-century and provides the historical context for the resistance to the prominent and convincing tenets of modernity. Given the myriad responses, he focuses on a more conservative response to reductive definitions born out of well-intentioned progressivism. The author approaches the subject matter from an historical perspective, but utilizes an interdisciplinary discourse to create a multi-dimensional explanation of the intellectual atmosphere of the twentieth-century.

Download or read book Thinking Through Style written by Michael D. Hurley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-05 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is 'style', and how does it relate to thought in language? It has often been treated as something merely linguistic, independent of thought, ornamental; stylishness for its own sake. Or else it has been said to subserve thought, by mimicking, delineating, or heightening ideas that are already expressed in the words. This ambitious and timely book explores a third, more radical possibility in which style operates as a verbal mode of thinking through. Rather than figure thought as primary and pre-verbal, and language as a secondary delivery system, style is conceived here as having the capacity to clarify or generate thinking. The book's generic focus is on non-fiction prose, and it looks across the long nineteenth century. Leading scholars survey twenty authors to show where writers who have gained reputations as either 'stylists' or as 'thinkers' exploit the interplay between 'the what' and 'the how' of their prose. The study demonstrates how celebrated stylists might, after all, have thoughts worth attending to, and that distinguished thinkers might be enriched for us if we paid more due to their style. More than reversing the conventional categories, this innovative volume shows how 'style' and 'thinking' can be approached as a shared concern. At a moment when, especially in nineteenth-century studies, interest in style is re-emerging, this book revaluates some of the most influential figures of that age, re-imagining the possible alliances, interplays, and generative tensions between thinking, thinkers, style, and stylists.

Download or read book Nation and the Writing of History in China and Britain 1880 1930 written by Asier Hernández Aguirresarobe and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-19 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nation and the Writing of History in China and Britain explores, through a comparative approach, the reception of the nationalist worldview and its effects on the practice of history in China and Britain. This book proposes that nationalism, rather than a political doctrine, is a way of making sense of the world which results from the combination of a set of definite assumptions. The work analyzes how each one of these premises was accepted and negotiated by literati, intellectuals, historians, and other scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The results of this research showcase how the reception of the new nationalist worldview crucially affected images of the past, the present, and the future in both societies and decisively framed cultural, social, and political debate. In addition, they likewise evidence the fundamental role that historical narratives play in the crystallization of national identities. This book is perfect for readers interested in China and Britain during this time period, but also to anyone attracted to new ways of conceiving nationalism and its role in our world.