Truth Or Death: The Quest for Immortality in the Western Narrative Tradition

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Talonbooks, 2004 - Literary Criticism - 412 pages
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In the tradition of James Frazer, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Thierry Hentsch retells, with new urgency and a keen critical eye, "the story of the West" that shapes our perception of the world. Yet, "the story of the West" does not exist. Only a reading of its most seminal texts--from Ulysses to Hamlet, from the Torah to the Gospels, from Plato to Descartes--can bring it alive.

His tale turns on a startling discovery: The Christian message of immortality is conditional. To overcome death--the touchstone of the human condition--the believer must accept the Truth of salvation. Western civilization, by replacing God with technoscience, offers the universal promise that salvation may now be gained on earth. Yet, as a condition, it would impose its own absolute morality on the world. Truth or Death: the Biblical injunction is ours as well.

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Contents

A Word to the Reader
11
IMMORTALITY AND LIFE
41
The Shield of Aeneas
64
Copyright

14 other sections not shown

Common terms and phrases

accept adventure appears attempt Augustine beauty become beginning believe better body brings carry cause centuries Christ Christian concern consider continues death desire divine doubt entirely exists expression face fact faith father final follow force Gilgamesh give gods Gospel Greek Hamlet hand hero Homeric hope human idea imagination immortality interpretation Italy Jesus king knight knowledge leads least leaves less lies light lives longer master meaning mind myth narrative narrator nature never object once origins philosophy Plato poet political possess possible precisely present provides question Quixote reading reality reason relates remains reveals seek seems seen sense Socrates soul speak spirit stands story taken tale tell texts things thought Tristan true truth turn ultimate Ulysses understand universe writing

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About the author (2004)

Thierry Hentsch
Swiss-born, Francophone author Thierry Hentsch carried out various diplomatic missions for the International Red Cross in Syria, Palestine and Pakistan. An expert in intercultural relations, especially between the East and West, he published many incisive journal articles, reviews and collections, which have appeared in Conjonctures, Études internationales, Spirale and Le Monde diplomatique. His extensive research efforts culminated in L'Orient imaginaire [Imagining the Middle East], a much-heralded 1988 publication in which Hentsch provides a solemn critique of the Western perception of the Middle East and reflects on the construction of Western literary, cultural, philosophical, and political identities in relation to the "other."

Fred A. Reed
International journalist and award-winning literary translator Fred A. Reed is also a respected specialist on politics and religion in the Middle East. After several years as a librarian and trade union activist at the Montreal Gazette, Reed began reporting from Islamic Iran in 1984, visiting the Islamic Republic thirty times since then. He has also reported extensively on Middle Eastern affairs for La Presse, CBC Radio-Canada and Le Devoir. Reed is a three-time winner of the Governor General's Award for translation.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Truth Or Death
TitleTruth Or Death: The Quest for Immortality in the Western Narrative Tradition
AuthorThierry Hentsch
Translated byFred A. Reed
PublisherTalonbooks, 2004
Original fromthe University of Michigan
Digitized15 May 2008
ISBN0889225095, 9780889225091
Length412 pages
Subjects › 

Literary Criticism / Books & Reading
Literary Criticism / Canadian
Literary Criticism / Comparative Literature
  
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