The Influence of Mysticism on 20th Century British and American Literature

This volume discusses the relationships between the philosophy of Mysticism, which traces its lineage back into prehistory, with that of the world of more traditional philosophy and literature. The author argues for the centrality of mysticism’s role in the philosophical and artistic development of western culture. The connections between these worlds are underscored as the author examines the works of Heraclitus, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Iris Murdoch, Yeats, Æ (George Russell), T.S. Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, Auden, Huxley, Lessing, Gabriel García Márquez, and Tony Kushner, among others.

David Garrett Izzo is an emeritus professor of English who has published 16 books and 60 essays of literary scholarship, as well as three novels and two plays. He lives in Fuquay Varina, North Carolina.

David Garrett Izzo
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 191
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4106-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8002-9
Imprint: McFarland

Preface: The Man of Steel as Mystic      1
Introduction: The Comet That Changed the World      5

1. Vedanta and Theosophy: Preludes to a New Literature      13
2. Aldous Huxley and W.H. Auden: Mysticism as a Literary Theory      23
3. Mystical Philosophy as Applied to Philosophers and Literary Theorists      63
4. Mystical Theory Applied to 20th Century British Literature      93
5. Mystical Theory as Applied to 20th Century American Literature      129

Chapter Notes      163
Bibliography      167
Index      181