The Tragic Poetics of Simone Weil
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 |
109-21 |
Publisher |
Mercer University Press |
Place Published |
Macon, GA |
Language |
English |
Chapter |
8 |
Keywords |
affliction (malheur) |
Annotation |
Brueck examines what she calls “Weil’s tragic, Christian conception of poetic beauty” which, she claims, encompasses Weil’s notions of affliction and beauty (p. 109). Weil’s focus on affliction, the crucifixion and creation, Brueck notes, emphasizes the tragic nature of her thought. She goes on to consider Weil’s concept of divine justice including her belief that such justice “requires a world where innocent suffering is a serious and a genuine reality” (p. 113). The ‘esoteric’ nature of Weil’s view of Christianity, Brueck claims provides insights into tragedy that are often missed in more exoteric views. Weil’s theology she goes on to argue, focuses on the cross rather than the resurrection as most revelatory of God’s love, something which explains her focus on the ‘darker’ tragedies in Western culture and her reading of them as ‘suprational’ and not ‘irrational’ as many modern interpreters claim (p. 119). |