TY - BOOK AU - LaPorte,Charles TI - Victorian poets and the changing Bible T2 - Victorian literature and culture series SN - 9780813931654 AV - PR595.R4 .L37 2011eb U1 - 821/.809 22 PY - 2011/// CY - Charlottesville PB - University of Virginia Press KW - Bible KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc KW - History KW - 19th century KW - Influence KW - In literature KW - Critique, interprétation, etc KW - Histoire KW - 19e siècle KW - fast KW - Bibel KW - gnd KW - English poetry KW - History and criticism KW - Poetry KW - Religious aspects KW - Bible and literature KW - Literature and society KW - Great Britain KW - Poésie anglaise KW - Histoire et critique KW - Religion et poésie KW - Bible et littérature KW - Littérature et société KW - Grande-Bretagne KW - POETRY KW - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh KW - bisacsh KW - LITERARY CRITICISM KW - European KW - Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) KW - Intellectual life KW - Literature KW - Lyrik KW - Vie intellectuelle KW - Englisch KW - swd KW - Electronic books N1 - Includes bibliographical references (p, [263]-276) and index; Introduction -- "Mrs. Browning's gospel" and the art of revelation -- Tennyson's precious method of interpretation -- Clough's devil in the details -- Robert Browning's sacred and legendary art -- George Eliot's fits of poetry N2 - Victorian Poets and the Changing Bible charts the impact of post-Enlightenment biblical criticism on English literary culture. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a widespread reevaluation of biblical inspiration, in which the Bible's poetic nature came to be seen as an integral part of its religious significance. Understandably, then, many poets who followed this interpretative revolution--including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning--came to reconceive their highest vocational ambitions: if the Bible is essentially poetry, then modern poetry might perform a cultural role akin to that of scripture. This context equally illuminates the aims and achievements of famous Victorian unbelievers such as Arthur Hugh Clough and George Eliot, who also responded enthusiastically to the poetic ideal of an inspired text. Building upon a recent and ongoing reevaluation of religion as a vital aspect of Victorian culture, Charles LaPorte shows the enduring relevance of religion in a period usually associated with its decline. In doing so, he helps to delineate the midcentury shape of a literary dynamic that is generally better understood in Romantic poetry of the earlier part of the century. The poets he examines all wrestled with modern findings about the Bible's fortuitous historical composition, yet they owed much of their extraordinary literary success to their ability to capitalize upon the progress of avant-garde biblical interpretation. This book's revisionary and provocative thesis speaks not only to the course of English poetics but also to the logic of nineteenth-century literary hierarchies and to the continuing evolution of religion in the modern era. Victorian Literature and Culture Series UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=445678 ER -