Simone Weil and George Herbert on the Vocations of Writing and Reading
Publication Type |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication |
2000 |
Author |
|
Journal |
Religion & Literature |
Volume |
32 |
Number |
3 |
Pages |
69-102 |
Language |
English |
Keywords |
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Annotation |
As the title suggests, this article looks at the vocations of reading and writing in the work of Simone Weil and George Herbert, the poet whose poem "Love" was so important for Weil. Vander Weele argues his analysis of Weil’s and Herbert’s thought opens a third understanding or way of viewing art situated between the extremes of art as “art for art’s sake” and art as a vehicle for critical social analysis. The first view, he argues, leaves us passive in the face of art, while the second reduces it to its instrumental value. He begins his argument with a short reflection on the role of art in the modern western world, and then goes on to a fairly extensive discussion of vocation in Weil’s and Herbert’s work. He applies the ideas about vocation he has identified in their work specifically to reading and writing. He concludes by connecting his discussion of reading and writing as vocations to Weil’s claims about the responsibility of writers in her work The Need for Roots, written shortly before her death. |