{"product_id":"the-alchemist-in-literature-from-dante-to-the-present-9780198834168","title":"The Alchemist in Literature: From Dante to the Present","description":"Unlike most other studies of alchemy and literature, which focus on alchemical imagery in poetry of specific periods or writers, this book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in the Eighth Circle of Dante's Inferno down to the present. From the\u003cbr\u003ebeginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the transmutation of baser metals into gold) and esoteric or speculative (the spiritual transformation of the alchemist himself). From Dante to Ben Jonson, during the centuries when the belief in exoteric alchemy was still strong and\u003cbr\u003eexploited by many charlatans to deceive the gullible, writers in major works of many literatures treated alchemists with ridicule in an effort to expose their tricks. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as that belief weakened, the figure of the alchemist disappeared, even though Protestant\u003cbr\u003epoets in England and Germany were still fond of alchemical images. But when eighteenth-century science almost wholly undermined alchemy, the figure of the alchemist began to emerge again in literature--now as a humanitarian hero or as a spirit striving for sublimation. Following these esoteric\u003cbr\u003eromanticizations, as scholarly interest in alchemy intensified, writers were attracted to the figure of the alchemist and his quest for power. The fin-de-siecle saw a further transformation as poets saw in the alchemist a symbol for the poet per se and others, influenced by the prevailing spiritism, \u003cbr\u003eas a manifestation of the religious spirit. During the interwar years, as writers sought surrogates for the widespread loss of religious faith, esoteric alchemy underwent a pronounced revival, and many writers turned to the figure of the alchemist as a spiritual model or, in the case of Paracelsus\u003cbr\u003ein Germany, as a national figurehead. This tendency, theorized by C. G. Jung in several major studies, inspired after World War II a vast popularization of the figure in novels--historical, set in the present, or juxtaposing past and present-- in England, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, and the\u003cbr\u003eUnited States. The inevitable result of this popularization was the trivialization of the figure in advertisements for healing and cooking or in articles about scientists and economists. In sum: the figure of the alchemist in literature provides a seismograph for major shifts in intellectual and\u003cbr\u003ecultural history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Theodore Ziolkowski\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/31\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.30w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780198834168\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheodore Ziolkowski, \u003cem\u003eProfessor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature, Princeton University\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBorn in Birmingham, Alabama, Theodore Ziolkowski attended school in Montevallo, Alabama, where his father was a professor of music at the college. Having attained his B.A. (1951) and M.A. (1952) at Duke University, he spent a year at the University of Innsbruck before going to Yale University for his Ph.D. in German (1957). Following assistant and associate professorships at Yale and Columbia, he moved in 1964 to Princeton, where he served as professor, chairman of his department, and Dean of the Graduate School before his retirement in 2001. In addition to several visiting professorships, he has received numerous grants and awards in the United States and in Germany.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39932116631667,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":41.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_72eb85d3-7efc-44a1-af4b-7a372491b8bb.jpg?v=1647790445","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/the-alchemist-in-literature-from-dante-to-the-present-9780198834168","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}