Wordsworth and the Zen Mind: The Poetry of Self-Emptying

This book demonstrates that Zen thought and art provide both a generative and a formative context for understanding the spirituality of the English poet William Wordsworth (1770--1850). Combining methods of modern literary scholarship with the philosophical initiatives of the Kyoto School, the text crosses disciplines as well as cultures, offering a nonmonotheistic, nonpantheistic philosophical ground upon which to study what Wordsworth calls the tranquil soul and the one Presence that underlies the great whole of life. Anticipating a variety of audiences, the discourse progresses from general, introductory level discussions of Zen philosophy and literature to the more technical philosophical idiom of the Kyoto School, employing intertextual readings of a variety of Wordsworthian and Zen documents to broaden and deepen the East-West dialogue as it has been unfolding since the pioneering work of D. T. Suzuki and Kitaro Nishida.

An important aspect of this study is its twofold purpose: to situate Wordsworth more centrally in the evolving global community of intercultural and interreligious communication and to demonstrate the unique flexibility and universality of Zen as a medium of spiritual growth and aesthetic understanding.

Author: John G. Rudy
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 03/28/1996
Pages: 268
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 8.96h x 5.85w x 0.61d
ISBN: 9780791429044

About the Author
John G. Rudy is Professor of English at Indiana University Kokomo.

This title is not returnable