Kathleen Raine - (Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing) by Jenny Messenger (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book considers Raine's engagement with Graeco-Roman philosophy in her poetry, scholarship, essays, and autobiographical writings. Kathleen Raine was a poet, literary scholar, and co-founder of the Temenos Academy, an educational charity dedicated to the study of world philosophies. Her interpretation of the classical past informed her persona as poet and scholar, and in both tasks she sought to reintroduce to Western society what she viewed as the lost symbolic discourse of a 'perennial philosophy'. Her way of seeing the world, traceable from antiquity to the present day, distinguished no separation between inner self and outer world and stressed the interconnectedness of all beings"--

Book Synopsis

For the poet and scholar Kathleen Raine, ancient textswere not obsolete, but vital handbooks for reading reality. Drawing on Graeco-Roman philosophy alongside modernist receptions of the ancient world, this book is the first study of her engagement with classical antiquity. Raine's interpretation of the classical past not only informed her literary work, but also gave her a compelling perspective, which located consciousness as the basis of reality. This way of seeing the world, traceable from antiquity to the present day via the 'perennial philosophy', claimed little distinction between inner self and outer world, and stressed the interconnectedness of all beings.

Jenny Messenger explores Raine's use of Graeco-Roman philosophy as source texts for understanding consciousness, articulated throughout her poetry, scholarship and autobiographical writing. Raine believed there were multiple planes of consciousness, across which symbolic poetry and prose could operate to reach the highest levels of being. The creative arts were even capable of shaping consciousness, expanding or shrinking the scope of what could be experienced. Though she won acclaim during her lifetime, her literary reputation has been overshadowed by her relationship with writer and naturalist Gavin Maxwell. This book moves the focus back to Raine's work, bringing her complex classicism to a wider audience.

About the Author

Jenny Messenger is an independent scholar, UK. She is a journalist and writer, and she has published numerous articles on social housing, sustainability and the climate crisis.