Simone Weil and Wallace Stevens: The Notion of Decreation as Subtext in “An Ordinary Evening in New Haven”
Publication Type |
Book Chapter |
Year of Publication |
1996 |
Author |
|
Editor |
Dunaway, John M. Springsted, Eric O. |
Book |
The Beauty That Saves: Essays on Aesthetics and Language in Simone Weil |
Pages |
151-171 |
Publisher |
Mercer University Press |
Place Published |
Macon, Georgia |
Language |
English |
Keywords |
affliction (malheur) |
Annotation |
Lindroth begins this essay with a discussion of the response to Peter Brazeau’s biography of Wallace Stevens in which he claims Stevens underwent a ‘deathbed conversion’ to Christianity. Noting Steven’s reading of Weil in the latter years of his life, Brazeau introduces Williams poem “An Ordinary Evening in New Haven” and some of the critical interpretations of and reflections upon it. Brazeau then uses Weil’s themes of “decreation, gravity, the Hidden God, affliction and the renunciation of time” as a guide in his own, careful, in-depth interpretation of the Wallace’s poem. |
Notes |
Previously published in Religion and Literature 19.1 (1987):43-62. Significant content is available through Google Books |