内容

目次

Introduction: a sceptic with a taste for mysticism; mysticism and "FourQuartets"; the question of sources. Part 1 "Burnt Norton" - at thestill point: mysticism and music - the music of imagery, music andmeaning; the philosophy of stillness - Richard of St. Victor andAristotle, the mystical attitude of Henry Bergson, the philosophy ofthe poet and the poem; Eliot in meditation - meditation and poetry, thestructure of a meditation. Part 2 "East Coker" - the way of negation:the ascetic vision - a dance of death; the Good Friday lyric; poetryand asceticism; the poet "between two worlds"; mysticism andincarnation - two types of mysticism, the meaning of incarnation; theinfluence of St. John of the cross - the language of paradox, thetheology of the dark night. Part 3 "The Dry Salvages" - visions andrevisions: mysticism under scrutiny - the influence of Soren Kiekegaard- mysticism and meaning, a Kierkegaardian perspective, the recovery ofdread; the Brahmin and Buddhist influence - "Burnt Norton", "EastCoker", "The Dry Salvages", "Little Gidding"; mysticism and magic -meditation and the occult, the ghost of W.B.Yeats, a minor source -Maurice Maeterlinck, P.D.Ouspensky and Charles Williams. Part 4 "LittleGidding" - an end of exploration: the language of patriotism - RudyardKipling and Rupert Brooke; mysticism and myth (1) and the Shakespearepattern - the mythical method and "Four Quartets", the theme of deathand rebirth - Eliot and G.Wilson Knight, journey through darkness intolight - Eliot and Colin Still, the question of belief; mysticism andmyth - (2) and the Dantean parallel - Eliot "in the middle way", thejourney towards spiritual freedom, visionary imagination, the states ofheaven and damnation.