The men I have chosen for fathers : literary and philosophical passages
Abstract
Selected pieces from essays published over the past twenty-five years. In general, the first essays move from a concern with the literature of the Southern Renaissance to a consideration of that New England "regionalist" Robert Frost. The center piece considers Ezra Pound, who was (one might say) haunted by the influence of the regional on art. From what is said of Pound we may perhaps better appreciate a regionalist like Richard Weaver. From Weaver, we tum to Solzhenitsyn and Voegelin. And
though they may be at first thought rather widely removed from Donald Davidson and Allen Tate and William Faulkner, what we discover in them is an affinity: a common concern about Western civilization. What is thus emphasized is the importance of a central theme running throughout this selection: the difference between the provincial mind and the regional mind.
Table of Contents
In defense of evil -- Flannery O'Connor's sacramental vision -- Cleanth brooks and the life in art -- Robert Frost: One who shrewdly pretends -- Ezra Pound: The quest for paradise -- Richard Weaver against the establishment -- Solzhenitsyn at Harvard -- Solzhenitsyn as southerner -- Eric Voegelin and the end of our exploring -- Eric Voegelin as prophetic philosopher -- Eric Voegelin as prophetic philosopher: afterthoughts.