Necessary Angels (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Alter
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Literary criticism
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction
- Subjects: Language or languages, Self-discovery, Tradition, Literature, Writing, Jews or Jewish life, Mysticism, Modernization, Hebrew language, Theology, Transcendentalism
A student of the European literary tradition and of modern fiction in particular, Robert Alter also commands a knowledge of biblical literature and commentary. This combination, unusual among both literary critics and biblical scholars, allows him to take a fresh approach to his subject in Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem. Like Alter’s earlier study The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language of Realism (1988), a gem of a book which received surprisingly little notice, Necessary Angels is based on a...
[The entire page is 2184 words long]
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