Nostalgia for the absolute

by George Steiner

Paperback, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

306

Genres

Religion & Spirituality

Nonfiction

Collections

Your library, Home Bookshelf, Massey Lectures

Publication

House of Anansi Press (1997), Edition: 2nd ed., 64 pages

Description

The decline of formal religious systems has left a moral and emotional emptiness in Western culture. George Steiner, internationally renowned thinker and scholar, pursues this and examines the alternative "mythologies" of Marxism, Freudian psychology, Lévi-Straussian anthropology, and fads of irrationality.

User reviews

LibraryThing member lukeasrodgers

In these lectures, Steiner argues that in the cultural vacuum left by the decay of religion, the religious urge, a "nostalgia for the absolute" continue to fuel our zest for what amount to modern mythologies (Freud, Marx, and--strangely--Levi-Strauss' structural anthropology) along with new age

fads. Given the format, it's hard to fault him too much for some lax argumentation and sensationalist conclusions. Yet despite some interesting observations and rhetorically persuasive narratives about how all these things fit together, the thesis suffers from too many hasty generalizations and simplistic analogies.

The analysis of Marx is rather superficial and makes no effort to distinguish between Marx and Marxism; the chapter on Freud involves some rather weak arguments concerning the role played by mythology in the genesis and support of Freud's ideas; and the chapter on Levi-Strauss is both bewildering for its inclusion at all, and also doesn't even remotely establish Steiner's claim that structural anthropology constitutes a total mythology (in the sense in which he proposes this thesis).

Show Less