Sanford Schwartz - Böcker

C.S. Lewis's space trilogy - Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), That Hideous Strength (1945) - has been both admired and dismissed for its staging of a sharply defined struggle between religious and naturalistic points of view. Proceeding from Mars and Venus to a final showdown on our own planet, each installment takes up another facet of the seemingly impassable conflict between Christianity and the tendencies of modern thought that arose in the wake of the Darwinian revolution in biology. In Out of the Silent Planet, the target is evolutionary naturalism, primarily as it appears in the science fiction of H.G. Wells. In Perelandra, it is the alluring but perilous doctrine of "creative" evolution inaugurated by Henri Bergson. In That Hideous Strength, Lewis depicts an insidious organization - the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments - whose friendly acronym, NICE, belies its pursuit of a eugenically inspired program to assume control over the evolutionary process and thereby achieve everlasting dominion over the planet. Taken together, these seemingly clear-cut confrontations between Christian tradition and modern apostasy reinforce the image of Lewis as the voice of an endangered heritage, a self-styled "dinosaur" waging spiritual warfare against the corruption and confusions of his age. Sanford Schwartz here offers a new reading of the trilogy that challenges the prevailing view of Lewis, shared by advocates and adversaries alike, as champion of the "discarded image" of premodern cosmology. Through his close reading of Lewis's work, Schwartz is able to discern the outlines of a Lewis who is far more deeply engaged with modern developments in science and philosophy, and more prepared to explore the possibilities for transforming these developments in ways that are not only compatible with traditional Christian doctrine but also speak to the distinctive problems of the modern condition. Unlike the Chronicles of Narnia, the Trilogy has received little scholarly attention. Schwartz's study fills a major gap in the literature and will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students as well as to Lewis's many devoted fans.

Sanford Schwartz situates Modernist poetics in the intellectual ferment of the early twentieth century, which witnessed major developments in philosophy, science, and the arts. Beginning with the works of various philosophers--Bergson, James, Bradley, Nietzsche, and Husserl, among others--he establishes a matrix that brings together not only the principal characteristics of Modernist/New Critical poetics but also the affiliations between the Continental and the Anglo-American critical traditions. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Sanford Schwartz situates Modernist poetics in the intellectual ferment of the early twentieth century, which witnessed major developments in philosophy, science, and the arts. Beginning with the works of various philosophers--Bergson, James, Bradley, Nietzsche, and Husserl, among others--he establishes a matrix that brings together not only the principal characteristics of Modernist/New Critical poetics but also the affiliations between the Continental and the Anglo-American critical traditions. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Sanford Schwartz explores the trailblazing career of 19th-century Quaker folk artist Edward HicksEdward Hicks (1780–1849) was the creator of one of the most familiar scenes in American art: the Peaceable Kingdom, which depicts a realm where wild and flesh-eating animals come together with defenseless creatures, and will not harm them. Because Hicks was a Quaker minister, his many renderings of the scene have been taken as largely a self-taught artist’s professions of Quaker pacifism.But here, author and curator Sanford Schwartz, in a wide-ranging study that for the first time looks at Hicks as an imaginative artist as well as a minister, shows how the Peaceable Kingdom paintings—there are some 60 examples, made over 30 years—tell a richer story. In Schwartz’s hands, Hicks emerges as a person and a painter who hardly seems to be of the past. We spend time with this passionate, vehement figure who was also empathic and ardently connected to his wide community. And we see how the Kingdom series, though labeled folk art, share much with the work of mainstream artists of the time and even with work we now call outsider art.