THE NEW SCHOOL OF THE IMAGINATION

About the Book

This essay offers a radical view of the post-Renaissance, Western literary scene inasmuch as Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy bears a relation to it, principally through his Mystery Plays. A number of major authors are highlighted as having an intrinsic connection with the Anthroposophical revelation-notably T.S. Eliot, and especially S.T. Coleridge. The prospect of a new cultural poetic for the future is outlined in connection especially with these two major figures of English critical-poetic tradition.

Other authors that are considered include Wordsworth, Goethe, Lawrence, Yeats; Graves, Hughes; Milton, Swift, and Blake; Strindberg, Hemingway and Beckett.

Steiner's Plays were never intended as Literature as we know that discipline today, but they provide a singular point of view from which the idea of Literature can be re-evaluated and new directions set forth that represent a transformed prospect for Literature in the future. Some of our most distinguished authors of the past are seen in a new light, as if it had been their struggle to reach out to the possibilities Steiner's Plays bring forth.

About the Author

Born in Montreal, Canada, John O’Meara received his Ph.D in 1986 from the University of East Anglia. He taught for over 20 years in the English departments of the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa.