Papers by Larry R Isitt
This is my second revision.7/26/17
In this essay, I mean to urge graduate students who are not y... more This is my second revision.7/26/17
In this essay, I mean to urge graduate students who are not yet admirers of theory to restrain their own critical whimsies and do the hard work of studying the historical and biographical setting of poems and novels. I have no hope or intent of changing the minds of graduate faculty who revere theory, for to turn them away from their beliefs cannot be done. Theory is too deep into their psyche. I do hope, however, to convince graduate students that contemporary literary theories they are being taught to revere are not necessary to interpretation—that is, if they wish to find the intended meaning of the poet or author.
As examples I look at Freud and Feminism
Authors I cite include Shakespeare, Milton, Faulkner, and Sylvia Plath
Milton wrote 12,550 lines in the two poems and created over 1300 distinct names for his character... more Milton wrote 12,550 lines in the two poems and created over 1300 distinct names for his characters (approximately 250 for God, 200 for Christ, 240 for Satan, and 650 for the Angels). The uniqueness of Milton's art can be seen in his use of names. His poetics, as reflected in his use of names, show a style distinctly different in purpose and tone from the Christian Bible. Furthermore, his use of names clearly and consistently reflects his unorthodox theology, which had gone unrecognized by his readers until the discovery of Christian Doctrine and its publication in 1825.
Two groups … were specifically faced with the problem … of keeping up human integrity and spiritu... more Two groups … were specifically faced with the problem … of keeping up human integrity and spiritual resistance: the intellectuals and the churches (Rothfels 34) This paper is specifically a development of the quotation above, resistance to Hitler from these two moral agencies: the intellectuals and the church. When we ask to what degree the major institutions of the state resisted the increasingly evident grasp for total power in National Socialist Germany, we immediately run aground over what we mean by resistance. Though I mean to touch on all aspects, military, trade union, political parties, schools, sciences, they do not form the major topic of this paper. Instead, what I intend to examine are articles and books dealing with the degree to which early resistance could have arisen from two of the more important potential moral and intellectual forces in Germany-Church and University. The "how could it have happened" question that recurs over and over in all discussions of Adolf Hitler, becomes particularly important to the two institutions in question because there were enough early indications of Hitler's perverseness in both moral and intellectual spheres to have served as warnings to churchmen, professors and scientists, as well as to political and military opposition groups.
Stalin was no ideologist in the Lenin mold, but instead was a pure schemer for power. He saved th... more Stalin was no ideologist in the Lenin mold, but instead was a pure schemer for power. He saved the revolution in overthrowing the Tsars but not its Marxist ideology in anything like the pure ideal of a workers’ paradise. What he saved was not pure socialism: instead it was merely Tsarism in new form with new justifications pulled from Marxist-Leninist theory of rulership in the name of socialism.
2011 was the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Authorized Version, popularly known as t... more 2011 was the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Authorized Version, popularly known as the King James Version of the Bible. The translators prefaced the 1611 edition with a long essay addressed to the reader in which they say what they were about. The essay was dropped from current editions and it is too bad, for if it were read, it would prevent the absurdity of claiming infallible inspiration for the translation. The essay claims no such inspired work.
My review of Michael Bryson's 'The Tyranny of Heaven'; Bryson's depiction of Milton's God is not ... more My review of Michael Bryson's 'The Tyranny of Heaven'; Bryson's depiction of Milton's God is not Milton's God nor is it the God accepted in England in the seventeenth century
John Milton's Arian Epic as seen in Book 3 of Paradise Lost as measured by the orthodox creeds an... more John Milton's Arian Epic as seen in Book 3 of Paradise Lost as measured by the orthodox creeds and by Milton's own words in his heretical theological treatise, De Doctrina Christiana (trans as Christian Doctrine in 1825)
Drafts by Larry R Isitt
It would seem a commonsense and logical beginning to ask of any writer what he meant by the words... more It would seem a commonsense and logical beginning to ask of any writer what he meant by the words he wrote, and yet today in university English courses that is no longer the dominant literary way of investigating fiction. What follows is an excerpt from a longer piece titled “Bartleby and the Good Samaritan: Herman Melville’s Bible Pathway into His Parable of “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” which says that the surest way to determining Melville’s intent in the story is to begin where he began—with the Bible. This is my defense of the historical method I employ. The many critics of fiction who follow the New Criticism and the even more distorted notions of theories such as Deconstructionism, ignore Melville’s Bible pathway as the determiner of his story’s meaning.
Herman Melville wrote "Bartleby" under the influence of his Bible reading, but critics since the ... more Herman Melville wrote "Bartleby" under the influence of his Bible reading, but critics since the New Criticism do not see the story inside this framework. This is an excerpt from a larger paper
The belief in nothingism (nihilism) was coined, though not created, by Ivan Turgenev in his 1862 ... more The belief in nothingism (nihilism) was coined, though not created, by Ivan Turgenev in his 1862 novel Fathers and Sons. His hero, Bazarov, believed in that doctrine. I outline it using quotes from the novel. Then I try to link such belief to the Bolsheviks of the 1917 revolution in Russia.
Historian Paul Johnson derides the claims of modern secular intellectuals who claim to have the w... more Historian Paul Johnson derides the claims of modern secular intellectuals who claim to have the welfare of their nation at heart in their schemes of governance but who really have no interest at all in the real individual lives of people. "I believe," he says, "that the reflective portion of mankind is divided into two groups: those who are interested in people and care about them; and those who are interested in ideas." The first group he calls pragmatic and the best rulers; the latter he calls intellectuals and asserts that " if their attachment to ideas is passionate, and not only passionate but programmatic, they are almost certain to abuse whatever power they acquire. " Intellectuals suffer " the ravages of a common, debilitating scourge " which Johnson labels " the heartlessness of ideas. "
The argument made by politically left-leaning historians that improvement has come to Russia sinc... more The argument made by politically left-leaning historians that improvement has come to Russia since Yeltzin and Gorbachev neglects the continuity between Imperial Russian oppression and Soviet style repression. My paper is based on arguments from Richard Pipes, a right-leaning historian.
Two groups … were specifically faced with the problem … of keeping up human integrity and spiritu... more Two groups … were specifically faced with the problem … of keeping up human integrity and spiritual resistance: the intellectuals and the churches (Rothfels 34) This paper is specifically a development of the quotation above, resistance to Hitler from these two moral agencies: the intellectuals and the church. When we ask to what degree the major institutions of the state resisted the increasingly evident grasp for total power in National Socialist Germany, we immediately run aground over what we mean by resistance. Though I mean to touch on all aspects, military, trade union, political parties, schools, sciences, they do not form the major topic of this paper. Instead, what I intend to examine are articles and books dealing with the degree to which early resistance could have arisen from two of the more important potential moral and intellectual forces in Germany-Church and University. The "how could it have happened" question that recurs over and over in all discussions of Adolf Hitler, becomes particularly important to the two institutions in question because there were enough early indications of Hitler's perverseness in both moral and intellectual spheres to have served as warnings to churchmen, professors and scientists, as well as to political and military opposition groups.
Teaching Documents by Larry R Isitt
This is a handout I use in my ancient literature humanities course and is intended as a descripti... more This is a handout I use in my ancient literature humanities course and is intended as a description of what the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) has to say about who were the true and false prophets.
The Bible is quite specific about the acts that constitute the sin of idolatry. This is a handout... more The Bible is quite specific about the acts that constitute the sin of idolatry. This is a handout I use in my ancient literature humanities course and is intended as a description of what the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) has to say about why the sin was so terrible and the prime cause of why God punished Israel
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Papers by Larry R Isitt
In this essay, I mean to urge graduate students who are not yet admirers of theory to restrain their own critical whimsies and do the hard work of studying the historical and biographical setting of poems and novels. I have no hope or intent of changing the minds of graduate faculty who revere theory, for to turn them away from their beliefs cannot be done. Theory is too deep into their psyche. I do hope, however, to convince graduate students that contemporary literary theories they are being taught to revere are not necessary to interpretation—that is, if they wish to find the intended meaning of the poet or author.
As examples I look at Freud and Feminism
Authors I cite include Shakespeare, Milton, Faulkner, and Sylvia Plath
Drafts by Larry R Isitt
Teaching Documents by Larry R Isitt
In this essay, I mean to urge graduate students who are not yet admirers of theory to restrain their own critical whimsies and do the hard work of studying the historical and biographical setting of poems and novels. I have no hope or intent of changing the minds of graduate faculty who revere theory, for to turn them away from their beliefs cannot be done. Theory is too deep into their psyche. I do hope, however, to convince graduate students that contemporary literary theories they are being taught to revere are not necessary to interpretation—that is, if they wish to find the intended meaning of the poet or author.
As examples I look at Freud and Feminism
Authors I cite include Shakespeare, Milton, Faulkner, and Sylvia Plath