David Myth in Western Literature
David Myth in Western Literature (Hardback)
Book Description
This collection of eleven original essays each by a different scholar outlines the rich body of imaginative and devotional literature which has the biblical poet-warrior-king as its subject or primary focus, showing David to have as strong an imaginative appeal for Western writers as such better-known mythic heroes as Orpheus, Oedipus, Samson, and Ulysses. The introduction to the volume surveys the development of the David myth particularly in British and American literature. The essays represent a variety of critical approaches to the myth as literature, treating in detail such works as Shakespeare's Hamlet, Cowley's Davideis, Christopher Smart's "A Song to David," and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom and examining the complex uses made of David in the Midrash, Talmud, and Patristic writings; medieval sermons and Reformation devotional treatises; and American Puritan sermons.
About the Author(s):
Jan Wojcik holds a doctorate from Yale University in comparative literature and is an associate professor of humanities at Clarkson University. He is the author of books and articles on ethics and modern technology and literary approaches to the Bible.
About the Editor(s):
Raymond-Jean Frontain Professor of English and Director, Humanities and World Cultures Institute Department of English University of Central Arkansas Education Ph.D. in English (Purdue University, 1983) M.A. in English (Purdue University, 1975) B.A. in French (Marist College, 1973)