Adam Kirsch – författare

In Culture as Counterculture, leading literary critic and intellectual Adam Kirsch explores the question of how 21st-century religion, art, and science engage with the past, and are both re-enlivened and redefined by it.Since the early 20th-century, "high culture"-particularly classical music-has steadily been losing its authority, and not just because it was supplanted, as some argue, by mass-produced kitsch. For years after World War Two, it still represented that to which "popular culture" compared itself: the standard against which artistic achievement was measured. Today, no one disses classical music-"Roll Over Beethoven"-in the same way. It has become the embodiment of art for its own sake, moving from "high culture," argues Adam Kirsch, to "counterculture"-subversive, challenging, and defiant. Kirsch, a poet and critic who currently serves as the editor of the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Review Section, has written on a wide range of subjects. This new collection of previously published works reflects the full extent of that range. Kirsch explores the question of how 21st-century religion, art, and science engage with the past, and are both re-enlivened and redefined by it. He takes on such topics as the literary abilities of ChatGPT, the return to tradition by contemporary Jewish novelists, and the 19th-century perception of poets William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley as radical rather than canonical figures. The book concludes with "Nothing That Is Not There," an essay new to this volume that engages Jewish terms to reflect and respond to the challenges to faith and meaning in a secular age.

The distinguished poet and critic argues for the abiding relevance of a great literary mind of the twentieth centuryLionel Trilling, regarded at the time of his death in 1975 as America’s preeminent literary critic, is today often seen as a relic of a vanished era. His was an age when literary criticism and ideas seemed to matter profoundly in the intellectual life of the country. In this eloquent book, Adam Kirsch shows that Trilling, far from being obsolete, is essential to understanding our current crisis of literary confidence—and to overcoming it.By reading Trilling primarily as a writer and thinker, Kirsch demonstrates how Trilling’s original and moving work continues to provide an inspiring example of a mind creating itself through its encounters with texts. Why Trilling Matters introduces all of Trilling’s major writings and situates him in the intellectual landscape of his century, from Communism in the 1930s to neoconservatism in the 1970s. But Kirsch goes deeper, addressing today’s concerns about the decline of literature, reading, and even the book itself, and finds that Trilling has more to teach us now than ever before. As Kirsch writes, “Trilling’s essays are not exactly literary criticism” but, like all literature, “ends in themselves.”

From one of today’s keenest critics comes a collection of essays on poetry, religion, and the connection between the twoAdam Kirsch is one of today’s finest literary critics. This collection brings together his essays on poetry, religion, and the intersections between them, with a particular focus on Jewish literature. He explores the definition of Jewish literature, the relationship between poetry and politics, and the future of literary reputation in the age of the internet. Several essays look at the way Jewish writers such as Stefan Zweig and Isaac Deutscher, who coined the phrase “the non‑Jewish Jew,” have dealt with politics. Kirsch also examines questions of spirituality and morality in the writings of contemporary poets, including Christian Wiman, Kay Ryan, and Seamus Heaney. He closes by asking why so many American Jewish writers have resisted that category, inviting us to consider “Is there such a thing as Jewish literature?”

Over the last ten years, through essays in The New Republic, The New Yorker, and other magazines, Adam Kirsch—“one of the most promising young poet-critics in America” (Los Angeles Times)—has established himself among the most controversial and fearless critics writing today. Sure to cause heated debate, this collection of essays surveys the world of contemporary poetry with boldness and insight, whether Kirsch is scrutinizing the reputation of popular poets such as Billy Collins and Sharon Olds or admiring the achievement of writers as different as Derek Walcott, Czeslaw Milosz, and Frederick Seidel. For readers who want an introduction to the complex world of contemporary American poetry, from major figures like Jorie Graham to the most promising poets of the younger generation, Kirsch offers close readings and bold judgments. For readers who already know that world, The Modern Element will offer a surprising and thought-provoking new perspective.

Adam Kirsch has been described as "elegant and astute—[a] critic of the very first order" (The New York Times). In Rocket and Lightship he examines the work and life of writers past and present, from intellectuals Susan Sontag, Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin to novelists including E.M. Forster, David Foster Wallace and Zadie Smith.

Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, and Delmore Schwartz formed one of the great constellations of talent in American literature. In the decades after World War II, they changed American poetry forever by putting themselves at risk in their poems in a new and provocative way. Their daring work helped to inspire the popular style of poetry now known as "confessional." But partly as a result of their openness, they have become better known for their tumultuous lives—afflicted by mental illness, alcoholism, and suicide—than for their work. This book reclaims their achievement by offering critical "biographies of the poetry"—tracing the development of each poet's work, exploring their major themes and techniques, and examining how they transformed life into art. An ideal introduction for readers coming to these major American poets for the first time, it will also help veteran readers to appreciate their work in a new light.

Jews have long embraced their identity as “the people of the book.” But outside of the Bible, much of the Jewish literary tradition remains little known to nonspecialist readers. The People and the Books shows how central questions and themes of our history and culture are reflected in the Jewish literary canon: the nature of God, the right way to understand the Bible, the relationship of the Jews to their Promised Land, and the challenges of living as a minority in Diaspora. Adam Kirsch explores eighteen classic texts, including the biblical books of Deuteronomy and Esther, the philosophy of Maimonides, the autobiography of the medieval businesswoman Glückel of Hameln, and the Zionist manifestoes of Theodor Herzl. From the Jews of Roman Egypt to the mystical devotees of Hasidism in Eastern Europe, The People and the Books brings the treasures of Jewish literature to life and offers new ways to think about their enduring power and influence.

Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, The New York Times Book Review), poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the story of modern Jewish literature. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience.Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel and the endeavour to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity.An insightful and engaging work from "one of America’s finest literary critics" (The Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.

Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato's Republic that has yet been published, this widely acclaimed work is the first strictly literal translation of a timeless classic. In addition to the annotated text, there is also a rich and valuable essay,as well as indices,which will better enable the reader to approach the heart of Plato's intention. This new edition includes a new introduction by acclaimed critic Adam Kirsch, setting the work in its intellectual context for a new generation of readers.

Jacob El Hanani (b. 1947) was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and was raised in Israel. He produces highly intricate works through the painstaking repetition of miniscule marks, often Hebrew letters repeated thousands of times using ink on paper or canvas. He draws these images without magnification. The end result is a work of extraordinary detail that appears to be a pattern from a distance and speaks of the passage of time and the link between the microscopic and the infinite. Inspired by Albrecht Durer and minimalism, El Hanani practices the ancient art of micrography, in which tiny calligraphic letters are repeatedly drawn to create abstract designs. Jewish scribes used this technique to transcribe holy texts. El Hanani sees his work as part of this continuum and himself as a champion of the handmade.

Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last 7 October, the term “settler colonialism” has become a centre of political debate in the United States. Many progressives, academics and student organisations justified the attack on the grounds that Israel is a settler colonial state, meaning that it was created on land taken from an indigenous people and so can never be legitimate. The phrase was new to most Americans and leading publications like The New York Times and The Atlantic have published articles explaining what it means. But the concept has been influential in academic and activist circles for years, shaping the way many young people think—not just about Israel and Palestine, but about the history of the United States and a host of political issues.Building on Adam Kirsch’s October 2023 Wall Street Journal article on the topic, this short book examines the idea critically for a general readership. By exploring the most important writers, texts and ideas in the field of settler colonial studies, Kirsch shows that it is really a new political ideology, aimed at delegitimising not only Israel but also the United States, Canada and Australia. He examines the sources of its appeal, which are spiritual as much as political, and how it turns indignation at past injustices into a source of new injustices today. As a compact and accessible introduction to one of the crucial political ideas of our moment, the book will speak to readers interested in the Middle East, American history and today’s most urgent cultural-political debates.

The definitive translation of Plato's Republic, the most influential text in the history of Western philosophy “To read The Republic as Bloom means it to be read is to question everything we think we know about government, politics, the best human life, and the nature of truth.”—Adam Kirsch, from the introduction A cornerstone of Western thought, The Republic remains an unmatched exploration of justice in which lofty ideals collide with the practicalities of human existence. Just as the ancient city-states grappled with the notion of virtue and the proper role of the citizen, so too do we today face profound questions about our own society and its values. In this masterful translation by Allan Bloom, readers encounter Plato's timeless insights with clarity and vigor. And whether you’re approaching this seminal text for the first time or the fiftieth, Bloom’s insightful commentary provides a deeper understanding of Plato’s philosophical arguments. This definitive translation invites you to engage with the eternal struggle to define justice and the nature of human flourishing.

In these moving and meditative poems, Adam Kirsch shows how the experiences and recognitions of early life continue to shape us into adulthood. Richly evoking a 1980s childhood in Los Angeles, Kirsch uses Gen X landmarks—from Devo to Atari to the Challenger disaster—to tell a story of emotional and artistic coming of age, exploring universal questions of meaning, mortality, and how we become who we are.

Spurred by a curiosity about Daf Yomi—a study program launched in the 1920s in which Jews around the world read one page of the Talmud every day for 2,711 days, or about seven and a half years—Adam Kirsch approached Tablet magazine to write a weekly column about his own Daf Yomi experience. An avowedly secular Jew, Kirsch did not have a religious source for his interest in the Talmud; rather, as a student of Jewish literature and history, he came to realize that he couldn’t fully explore these subjects without some knowledge of the Talmud. This book is perfect for readers who are in a similar position. Most people have little sense of what the Talmud actually is—how the text moves, its preoccupations and insights, and its moments of strangeness and profundity. As a critic and journalist Kirsch has experience in exploring difficult texts, discussing what he finds there, and why it matters. His exploration into the Talmud is best described as a kind of travel writing—a report on what he saw during his seven-and-a-half-year journey through the Talmud. For readers who want to travel that same path, there is no better guide.

Should we welcome the end of humanity?In this blistering book about the history of an idea, one of our leading critics draws on his dazzling range and calls our attention to a seemingly inconceivable topic that is being seriously discussed: that the end of humanity’s reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it. Kirsch journeys through literature, philosophy, science, and popular culture, to identify two strands of thinking: Anthropocene antihumanism says that our climate destruction has doomed humanity and we should welcome our extinction, while Transhumanism believes that genetic engineering and artificial intelligence will lead to new forms of life superior to humans.Kirsch’s introduction of thinkers and writers from Roger Hallam to Jane Bennett, David Benatar to Nick Bostrom, Patricia MacCormack to Ray Kurzweil, Ian McEwan to Richard Powers, will make you see the current moment in a new light. The revolt against humanity has already spread beyond the fringes of the intellectual world, and it can transform politics and society in profound ways—if it hasn’t already.

Why do we still believe in UFOs, despite repeated efforts to dismiss them?For most of the twentieth century, reports of unidentified flying objects were treated as cultural error: cranks, hoaxes, late-night radio. Then, abruptly, the posture changed. The Pentagon released videos it could not explain. Navy pilots testified under oath about encounters that defied known technology. Intelligence agencies acknowledged that something unfamiliar appears to move through the skies.In We Want to Believe, Adam Kirsch, one of our most searching literary critics, traces the intellectual history behind this reversal to see UAPs not as fantasies or threats, but as a mystery closer to home. Moving from Cold War skeptics such as physicists Edward Condon and Carl Sagan—who helped define the boundaries of legitimate inquiry—to figures like Air Force officer Edward Ruppelt and astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who encountered anomalies from within official institutions, Kirsch follows how UAPs migrated from dismissed error to unresolved problem. Tracing how figures such as Pentagon official Luis Elizondo and astrophysicist Avi Loeb have reopened the question under radically different conditions, Kirsch draws on declassified documents, military encounters, and a wide literature of belief and skepticism to examine why some questions endure and what it means for modern societies when certainty fails and curiosity persists.

Jews have long embraced their identity as “the people of the book.” But outside of the Bible, much of the Jewish literary tradition remains little known to nonspecialist readers. The People and the Books shows how central questions and themes of our history and culture are reflected in the Jewish literary canon: the nature of God, the right way to understand the Bible, the relationship of the Jews to their Promised Land, and the challenges of living as a minority in Diaspora. Adam Kirsch explores eighteen classic texts, including the biblical books of Deuteronomy and Esther, the philosophy of Maimonides, the autobiography of the medieval businesswoman Glückel of Hameln, and the Zionist manifestoes of Theodor Herzl. From the Jews of Roman Egypt to the mystical devotees of Hasidism in Eastern Europe, The People and the Books brings the treasures of Jewish literature to life and offers new ways to think about their enduring power and influence.