World from Below

Langbaum has revised his 1970 collection of essays, "The Modern Spirit; Essays on the Continuity of 19th and 20th Century Literature" deleting some essays, revising and updating others, and adding five new essays on the literature and culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. As in the earlier work, the recurring themes in these essays are: the romantic self; the epiphanic mode in literature with the related themes of psychological associationism, literary fragmentation and the mythical method; the romantic and modern idea of culture as organic; and the emphasis in our literature and culture on unconsciousness and sexuality, deriving from the impact especially of Darwin and Freud. The author examines works of 19th and 20th century writers, including Browning, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Forster, Freud, Pound, Eliot and Mailer, showing that these writers found a refreshing new source of imagery and a renewing spirituality through intensification rather than elevation.