The alchemist in literature : from Dante to the present / Theodore Ziolkowski.

  • Ziolkowski, Theodore
Date:
2015
  • Books

About this work

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 beginning 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 exploited 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 poets 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.

Publication/Creation

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Physical description

x, 237 pages : black and white illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition

First edition.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction, or Materia Prima -- Satirizations, or Nigredo -- Romanticizations, or Cauda Pavonis -- Mid-century adaptations, or Albedo -- Poeticizations, or Fermentatio -- Spiritualizations, or Rubedo -- Popularizations, or Projectio -- Conclusions, or Quinta Essentia.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    AHA.AI
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780198746836
  • 0198746830