Sin and evil : moral values in literature / Ronald Paulson.

By:

Paulson, Ronald

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780300135206
0300135203

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Sin and evil.DDC classification:

820.9/38 22

LOC classification:

PR149.E87 P38 2007eb

Other classification:

18.05
18.06

Online resources:

Contents:

Evil, sin, and wrongdoing -- Classical and Christian equivalents of sin and evil -- Sin and evil redefined: the enlightenment -- Sin/evil and the law: the novel -- The demonizing of sin -- Demonic and banal evil -- The original evil and the original sin -- Modern sin and evil.

Action note:

digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve

Summary: The confusion of sin and evil, or religious and moral transgression, is the subject of Ronald Paulson's latest book. He calls attention to the important distinction between sin and Evil that in our times is largely ignored, and to the further confusion caused by the term 'moral values'. Ranging widely through the history of Western literature, Paulson focuses particularly on American and English works of the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries to discover how questions of evil and sin, and evil and sinful behaviour, have been discussed and represented. The breadth of Paulson's discussion is enormous, taking the reader from Greek and Roman tragedy, to Christian satire in the work of Swift and Hogarth, to Hawthorne's and Melville's novels, and finally to twentieth-century studies of good and evil by such authors as James, Conrad, Faulkner, Greene, Heller, Vonnegut, and O'Brien. Where does evil come from? What are 'moral values'? If evil is a cultural construct, what does that imply? Paulson's literary tour of sin and evil over the past two hundred years provides not only a historical perspective but also new ways of thinking about important issues that characterize our own era of violence, intolerance, and war.

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Includes bibliographical references and index.

The confusion of sin and evil, or religious and moral transgression, is the subject of Ronald Paulson's latest book. He calls attention to the important distinction between sin and Evil that in our times is largely ignored, and to the further confusion caused by the term 'moral values'. Ranging widely through the history of Western literature, Paulson focuses particularly on American and English works of the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries to discover how questions of evil and sin, and evil and sinful behaviour, have been discussed and represented. The breadth of Paulson's discussion is enormous, taking the reader from Greek and Roman tragedy, to Christian satire in the work of Swift and Hogarth, to Hawthorne's and Melville's novels, and finally to twentieth-century studies of good and evil by such authors as James, Conrad, Faulkner, Greene, Heller, Vonnegut, and O'Brien. Where does evil come from? What are 'moral values'? If evil is a cultural construct, what does that imply? Paulson's literary tour of sin and evil over the past two hundred years provides not only a historical perspective but also new ways of thinking about important issues that characterize our own era of violence, intolerance, and war.

Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL