Grammars of creation originating in the Gifford Lectures 1990 - Hardcover

George Steiner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571206816 ISBN 13: 9780571206810

Publisher: Faber & Faber London, 2001

Synopsis

"We have no more beginnings", George Steiner begins in this, his most radical book to date. A far-reaching exploration of the idea of creation in Western thought, literature, religion, and history, this volume can fairly be called a magnum opus. He reflects on the different ways we have of talking about beginnings, on the "coretiredness" that pervades our end-of-the-millennium spirit, and on the changing grammar of our discussions about the end of Western art and culture. With his well-known elegance of style and intellectual range, Steiner probes deeply into the driving forces of the human spirit and our perception of Western civilization's lengthening afternoon shadows.Roaming across topics as diverse as the Hebrew Bible, the history of science and mathematics, the ontology of Heidegger, and the poetry of Paul Celan, Steiner examines how the twentieth century has placed in doubt the rationale and credibility of a future tense -- the existence of hope. Acknowledging that technology and science may have replaced art and literature as the driving forces in our culture, Steiner warns that this has not happened without a significant loss. The forces of technology and science alone fail to illuminate inevitable human questions regarding value, faith, and meaning. And yet it is difficult to believe that the story out of Genesis has ended, Steiner observes, and he concludes this masterful volume of reflections with an eloquent evocation of the endlessness of beginnings.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Paris in 1929, George Steiner was educated in France, the USA and Britain. After a Rhodes Scholarship to Balliol, he joined the editorial staff of The Economist in 1952. In 1956 he was elected a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. There he wrote Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky (1960) and began The Death of Tragedy (1961). In 1964 he published Anno Domini, a book of three novellas dealing with the aftermath of the Second World War. Language and Silence was published in 1967. His other work includes Proofs and Three Parables, which Faber published in 1992.George Steiner lives in Cambridge, where he has been Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College since 1969. He has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. He has been awarded the Commandeur dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1994 he became the first Lord Weidenfeld Professor of Comparative Literature at Oxford.

Review

'This is a mesmerizing book... Expressed in prose that is unfailingly apt, luminous and evocative.' Guardian

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber London
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0571206816
• ISBN 13: 9780571206810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304