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Book Cover
E-book
Author Paulson, Ronald, 1930-2024

Title Sin and evil : moral values in literature / Ronald Paulson
Published New Haven : Yale University Press, ©2007

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 403 pages) : illustrations
Contents Evil, sin, and wrongdoing -- Classical and Christian equivalents of sin and evil -- Sin and evil redefined: the enlightenment -- Sin/evil and the law: the novel -- The demonizing of sin -- Demonic and banal evil -- The original evil and the original sin -- Modern sin and evil
Summary The confusion of sin and evil, or religious and moral transgression, is the subject of Ronald Paulson's latest book. He calls attention to the important distinction between sin and Evil that in our times is largely ignored, and to the further confusion caused by the term 'moral values'. Ranging widely through the history of Western literature, Paulson focuses particularly on American and English works of the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries to discover how questions of evil and sin, and evil and sinful behaviour, have been discussed and represented. The breadth of Paulson's discussion is enormous, taking the reader from Greek and Roman tragedy, to Christian satire in the work of Swift and Hogarth, to Hawthorne's and Melville's novels, and finally to twentieth-century studies of good and evil by such authors as James, Conrad, Faulkner, Greene, Heller, Vonnegut, and O'Brien. Where does evil come from? What are 'moral values'? If evil is a cultural construct, what does that imply? Paulson's literary tour of sin and evil over the past two hundred years provides not only a historical perspective but also new ways of thinking about important issues that characterize our own era of violence, intolerance, and war
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
Subject Good and evil in literature
English literature -- History and criticism.
American literature -- History and criticism.
Sin in literature.
Religion in literature.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
American literature
English literature
Good and evil in literature
Religion in literature
Sin in literature
Het Kwaad.
Zonde.
Engels.
Amerikaans.
Bellettrie.
Evil in literature
English literature -- History and criticism
American literature -- History and criticism
Sin in literature
Religion in literature
Péché (religion) -- Christianisme -- Dans la littérature.
Bien et mal -- Dans la littérature.
Spiritualité -- Dans la littérature.
Ondska i litteraturen.
Synd i litteraturen.
Religion i litteraturen.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2006022021
ISBN 9780300135206
0300135203
9786611734978
661173497X