Discourses of the Fall: A Study of Pascal's Pensées

by Sara E. Melzer

Book Overview

"Here is a unique and penetrating postmodernist invitation to reread Pascal's Pens es. With a full control on two centuries of Pascalian hermeneutics, Sara Melzer leads her readers into a passionate quest far beyond the worn-out search for a paleontological reconstruction of the Pens es's hypothetical final form. She rightly and deeply understands Pascal's writing-- criture--as the complex story of the "Fall of Truth into language." Such a perspective gives to Pascal's fragments a rejuvenated life, a newness, a dramatic and powerful voice for our own culture. In brief, a welcome breeze of fresh air in the Pascalian world "--Edouard Morot-Sir, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "By approaching Pascal's Pens es from the point of view of contemporary critical theory, Melzer sheds new light on this well-known work. Her argument is clear, lucid, and cogent. She has a firm grasp of the major issues at stake in debates among literary critics. I think this is an important work that will be of interest not only to Pascal specialists but also to people who work in the general area of literary theory. . . . One of the genuine strengths of the book is the author's ability to discern the theological implications of issues that preoccupy literary theorists. This is particularly important at a time when students of theology and religion are becoming more and more interested in literary theory. They will find this analysis of Pascal very suggestive."--Mark Taylor, Williams College

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520055403
• ISBN13: 9780520055407
• Release Date: April 1986
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"