Reach without Grasping

Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. is the inaugural William M. Suttles Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Anthropology and director of the Center for Hellenic Studies at Georgia State University.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Quest for a Genre, or, Where Boundaries Touch Then Blur Chapter 1. Eros the Bittersweet, or, The Poetics of DesireChapter 2. Translation as Criticism, Creation and Conjuring, or, The Musing ScholarChapter 3. Poetry, Madness and Markets, or, The Ancients and the ModernsChapter 4. Hybrid Genres Between Body and Spirit, or, Righting the Self and Writing GodConclusion: Dreaming in the NightEpilogue: Six Questions and an AfterwordAppendix: The Works of Anne Carson

Ruprecht examines in impressive scholarly depth the classical influences on Anne Carson (b. 1950), anti-genre poet/ philosopher/dramatist/translator, who traded her early position as a classics professor for a position as writer/artist in residence…. Ruprecht convincingly insists that for Carson there is no separation between Christian and classical themes and that in all her work, reach is emphasized over grasp—desire over sex. She is transgressive just as Socrates and Jesus were transgressive—upending expectations and creating new genres. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.