Search results for ""Author George Steiner""

Steiner did not write the books because intimacies and indiscretions were too threatening. Because the topic brought too much pain. Because its emotional or intellectual challenge proved beyond his capacities. The actual themes range widely and defy conventional taboos: the torment of the gifted when they live among the very great; the experience of sex in different languages; Zionism; a more intense love for animals than for human beings; the costly privilege of exile; a theology of emptiness.

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Entre 1967 y 1997, George Steiner escribió para The New Yorker más de 150 artículos y reseñas sobre gran variedad de asuntos, haciendo que ideas difíciles y temas poco familiares resultaran atrayentes no sólo para los intelectuales, sino también para el gran público. A Steiner le interesan tanto la Inglaterra de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el búnker de Hitler y el mundo caballeresco como Céline, Bernhard, Cioran, Beckett, Borges, Chomsky, Brecht o el historiador-espía Anthony Blunt. En estos artículos sorprendentes por su vívida sencillez, así como profundamente instructivos por su dominio de campos muy diferentes, Steiner nos ofrece una guía ideal que abarca desde la literatura del Gulag o la enorme importancia de George Orwell hasta la historia del ajedrez.

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With his hallmark discernment, George Steiner presents in The Poetry of Thought his magnum opus, staking out his claim for the essential oneness of great thought and great style. Steiner spans the entire history of Western philosophy as it entwines with literature, finding that, as Sartre stated, in all philosophy there is "a hidden literary prose."

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George Steiner, the eminent professor of English at Cambridge and Geneva universities, has outlined seven books he has never written, but has always wanted to write, in seven sections.In this fiercely original and audacious work, George Steiner tells of seven books which he did not write. Because intimacies and indiscretions were too threatening. Because the topic brought too much pain. Because its emotional or intellectual challenge proved beyond his capacities.The actual themes range widely and defy conventional taboos: the torment of the gifted when they live among, when they confront, the very great; the experience of sex in different languages; a love for animals greater than for human beings; the costly privilege of exile; a theology of emptiness.Yet a unifying perception underlies this diversity. The best we have or can produce is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind every good book, as in a lit shadow, lies the book which remained unwritten, the one that would have failed better.

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A partir de unas palabras en las que Schelling insinúa, a la manera de los gnósticos, que la tristeza es el telón de fondo de la naturaleza en general y de la condición humana en particular, George Steiner desarrolla diez tesis acerca de la tristeza inherente a la condición pensante del ser humano. Como en los ejercicios de sabiduría de un Séneca o un Marco Aurelio, pero desde una perspectiva marcada por la neurofisiología y la física cuántica, el autor levanta ante el lector una batería de preguntas que delatan el carácter dramático del pensamiento humano. Hay algo más allá del pensar que sería impensable? Podemos vivir sin pensar en absoluto? El pensamiento es infinito? Cuáles son las relaciones entre el pensamiento y el lenguaje, y entre el pensamiento y el yo? Podemos realmente pensar el pensamiento? En la última de las Diez (posibles) razones Steiner aborda la cuestión de Dios. Verosímilmente, dice, el homo se hizo sapiens [...] cuando surgió la cuestión de Dios. En efecto, no ha

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Steiner es el heredero, lúcido y exigente, de la tradición europea que otorga a la literatura y a las artes un espacio céntrico en nuestra civilización y en nuestra conciencia de ella.Del prólogo de CLAUDIO GUILLÉNEn esta obra ambiciosa a la vez que transgresora, Steiner plantea la tesis de que todas las expresiones de arte genuino y la comunicación humana a través del uso del lenguaje están enraizadas en una realidad trascendente que está, a su vez, relacionada de forma íntima e inextricable con la presencia real de lo divino, independientemente del credo que se profese.El autor ahonda en las correlaciones intelectuales e históricas de la cultura occidental, explora los límites del lenguaje profundizando en los sentidos y significados que entrañan sus términos más relevantes, y afronta todos aquellos temas insoslayables para un pensador de su talla, tales como la existencia de Dios o nuestro recurrente y fallido intento para justificar la experiencia estética, entre otros. Se

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En lo profundo del mar recoge las mejores obras de ficción de George Steiner, compendio de todos los temas recurrentes que han guiado la trayectoria del gran maestro del ensayo.George Steiner se ha referido a las narraciones reunidas en esta colección como un acto de rememoración, una serie de piezas que, independientemente del marco en el que se desarrollen ;las profundidades del Pacífico o las selvas de la Amazonia, la Polonia de los campos de exterminio o la Italia posterior a la caída del comunismo;, se comprometen una y otra vez con las mismas ideas de fondo: la inhumanidad en el corazón de la cultura y el enigma del lenguaje y su poder para consagrar o destruir hombres y mundos.Con una prosa ejecutada con brío, sumamente rica en referencias y un estilo cautivador, Steiner, siempre convencido de la tarea moral del escritor, reflexiona con lucidez sobre las crisis de valores causadas por las circunstancias históricas y sus devastadoras consecuencias: los monstruos que puede o

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When we talk about education today, we tend to avoid the rhetoric of "mastery," with its erotic and inegalitarian overtones. But the charged personal encounter between master and disciple is precisely what interests George Steiner in this book, a sustained reflection on the infinitely complex and subtle interplay of power, trust, and passions in the most profound sorts of pedagogy. Based on Steiner's Norton Lectures on the art and lore of teaching, Lessons of the Masters evokes a host of exemplary figures, including Socrates and Plato, Jesus and his disciples, Virgil and Dante, Heloise and Abelard, Tycho Brahe and Johann Kepler, the Baal Shem Tov, Confucian and Buddhist sages, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, Nadia Boulanger, and Knute Rockne.Pivotal in the unfolding of Western culture are Socrates and Jesus, charismatic masters who left no written teachings, founded no schools. In the efforts of their disciples, in the passion narratives inspired by their deaths, Steiner sees the beginnings of the inward vocabulary, the encoded recognitions of much of our moral, philosophical, and theological idiom. He goes on to consider a diverse array of traditions and disciplines, recurring throughout to three underlying themes: the master's power to exploit his student's dependence and vulnerability; the complementary threat of subversion and betrayal of the mentor by his pupil; and the reciprocal exchange of trust and love, of learning and instruction between master and disciple. Forcefully written, passionately argued, Lessons of the Masters is itself a masterly testament to the high vocation and perilous risks undertaken by true teacher and learner alike.

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Este libro es importante, pues si es cierto que la tragedia ha muerto, nos hallamos ante una pérdida cultural vital. No cabe duda de que provocará polémica. La pasión y la perspicacia con que Steiner escribe sobre las tragedias que le han conmovido prueban que las palabras todavía pueden ilustrar y revelar.The New York Times Book ReviewTodos los hombres tienen conciencia de la tragedia en la vida. Pero la tragedia como forma teatral no es universal, señala George Steiner, quien, en La muerte de la tragedia, se enfrenta a una cuestión que ha preocupado también, entre otros, a Lukács, Kafka o Sartre: por qué la tragedia, que evolucionó desde la Antigüedad hasta la época de Shakespeare y Racine, calla o declina, a partir de ese momento, en el teatro? George Steiner trata de determinar a qué se debe este ocaso en un riguroso estudio que traza un fascinante recorrido desde el teatro isabelino hasta Brecht o Beckett.

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La literatura i la filosofia, tal com les hem conegudes, són productes del llenguatge. De manera inalterable, aquest és el seu terreny ontològic i substantiu comú. El pensament en la poesia i la poètica del pensament són actes de gramàtica, actes de llenguatge en moviment. Els seus mitjans i les seves restriccions són els de l?estil. Tant la poesia com la filosofia són circumscrites per l?indicible, en el sentit directe d?aquest mot. L?objectiu de la poesia és reinventar el llenguatge, fer-lo nou. La filosofia s?esforça a fer que el llenguatge sigui rigorosament transparent, el vol depurar de tota ambigüitat i confusió. G. S.Aquestes paraules de George Steiner ens situen al moll de l?os d?aquest assaig brillant i suggestiu que, més enllà de les tesis que defensa, constitueix un recorregut extraordinari per la filosofia i la poesia de la tradició occidental, des de l?hellenisme fins a Paul Celan. És, sens dubte, una invitació a escoltar la música del pensament de més a prop.

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Del espíritu vienés, y de esa Europa judaizada ahora desaparecida, Steiner conserva la espontánea provocación de una magnífica ironía [...] al tiempo que una curiosa modestia. Su obra, que nos hace reflexionar sobre nuestro legado, nos obsequia además con una inmensa cultura, un puñado de bromas inteligentes y el perfume de la anarquía.Le Magazine LittéraireGeorge Steiner es un apasionado de lo absoluto. Algunos temen su espíritu mordaz y sus críticas cáusticas. Otros lo admiran por su cultura políglota, por su conocimiento de los textos clásicos, por su compromiso intelectual y por su creencia ciega, después del Holocausto, en que una comunidad humana todavía es posible.Acompañado de la complicidad de la prestigiosa periodista francesa Laure Adler, George Steiner rememora en esta obra su juventud, su educación en Estados Unidos, su postura frente al judaísmo y su amor por los idiomas y las grandes mitologías de nuestro siglo: el psicoanálisis, el marxismo y el estructuralismo

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Between 1967 and 1997, George Steiner wrote more than 130 pieces on a great range of topics for The New Yorker, making new books, difficult ideas, and unfamiliar subjects seem compelling not only to intellectuals but to “the common reader.” He possesses a famously dazzling mind: paganism, the Dutch Renaissance, children’s games, war-time Britain, Hitler’s bunker, and chivalry attract his interest as much as Levi-Strauss, Cellini, Bernhard, Chardin, Mandelstam, Kafka, Cardinal Newman, Verdi, Gogol, Borges, Brecht, Wittgenstein, Chomsky, and art historian/spy Anthony Blunt. Steiner makes an ideal guide from the Risorgimento in Italy to the literature of the Gulag, from the history of chess to the enduring importance of George Orwell. Again and again everything Steiner looks at in his New Yorker essays is made to bristle with some genuine prospect of turning out to be freshly thrilling or surprising.

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`Translation has long needed a champion, and at last in George Steiner it has found a scholar who is a match for the task.' Sunday Times First published in 1975, After Babel constituted the first systematic investigation of the theory and processes of translation since the eighteenth century. In mapping out its own field, it quickly established itself as both controversial and seminal, and gave rise to a considerable, and still-growing, body of secondary literature. Even today, with its status as a modern classic beyond question, many of the books insights remain provocative and challenging. For the second edition of After Babel, George Steiner entirely revised the text, added new and expanded notes, provided a substantially updated bibliography (including much Russian and Eastern European material), and wrote a new preface setting the book in the present context of hermeneutics, poetics, and translation studies. `Steiner's subject is extravagantly rich and he ponders it on the most generous scale...his language and his ideas display even-handedness, seriousness without heaviness, learning without pedantry, and sober charm.' New Yorker

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With characteristic lucidity and style, Steiner makes Heidegger's immensely difficult body of work accessible to the general reader. In a new introduction, Steiner addresses language and philosophy and the rise of Nazism. "It would be hard to imagine a better introduction to the work of philosopher Martin Heidegger."—George Kateb, The New Republic

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This is a memoiristic book and a dual portrait, built around intense friendships with two leading public intellectuals who achieved celebrity status—Susan Sontag on a global scale, George Steiner principally in Europe, though also for a time in the US. For audiences at Woody Allen movies Sontag was the prime embodiment of the term “intellectual,” whose famous 1965 essay “Notes on Camp” won her an enormous following. For viewers of French, German and British television over decades Steiner was the primary interview show talking head, igniting controversy on many fronts, while also commanding a loyal audience for thirty years as a book critic at The New Yorker. To know Sontag and Steiner, as this memoir suggests, was often to feel overmatched and yet also bemused and awe-struck. Both of them gave off an air of omniscience and self-confidence, as if they had taken to heart the words of the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, who wrote, “I cannot become modest; too many things burn in me.”Maestros & Monsters is the work of a well-known public intellectual who was close to Sontag and Steiner over a half century, and who managed to bring them together on several occasions—the only times they ever met. Those encounters are among the most bizarre episodes in this narrative, which also features extended encounters with such literary figures as Arthur Koestler, Edward Said, Phillip Rieff, James Wood and others.

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The Origin of German Tragic Drama is Walter Benjamin's most sustained and original work. It begins with a general theoretical introduction on the nature of the baroque art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, concentrating on the peculiar stage-form of royal martyr dramas called Trauerspiel. Benjamin also comments on the engravings of Durer and the theatre of Calderon and Shakespeare. Baroque tragedy, he argues, was distinguished from classical tragedy by its shift from myth into history. Georg Lukacs, an opponent of Benjamin's aesthetics, singled out The Origin of German Tragic Drama as one of the main sources of literary modernism in the twentieth century.

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Cited by Lukács as a principal source of literary modernism, Walter Benjamin's study of the baroque stage-form called Trauerspiel (literally, "mourning play") is the most complete document of his prismatic literary and philosophical practice. Engaging with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German playwrights as well as the plays of Shakespeare and Calderón and the engravings of Dürer, Benjamin attempts to show how the historically charged forms of the Trauerspiel broke free of tragedy's mythological timelessness. From its philosophical prologue, which offers a rare account of Benjamin's early aesthetics, to its mind-wrenching meditation on allegory, The Origin of German Tragic Drama sparkles with early insights and the seeds of Benjamin's later thought.

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George Steiner is one of the preeminent intellectuals of our time. The Washington Post has declared that no one else "writing on literature can match him as polymath and polyglot, and few can equal the verve and eloquence of his writing," while the New York Times says of his works that "the erudition is almost as extraordinary as the prose: dense, knowing, allusive." Reading in many languages, celebrating the survival of high culture in the face of modern barbarisms, Steiner probes the ethics of language and literature with unparalleled grace and authority. A Long Saturday offers intimate insight into the questions that have absorbed him throughout his career. In a stimulating series of conversations, Steiner and journalist Laure Adler discuss a range of topics, including Steiner's boyhood in Vienna and Paris, his education at the University of Chicago and Harvard, and his early years in academia. Books are a touchstone throughout, but Steiner and Adler's conversations also range over music, chess, psychoanalysis, the place of Israel in Jewish life, and beyond. Blending thoughts on subjects of broad interest in the humanities the issue of honoring Richard Wagner and Martin Heidegger in spite of their politics, or Virginia Woolf's awareness of the novel as a multivocal form, for example with personal reflections on life and family, Steiner demonstrates why he is considered one of today's greatest minds. Revealing and exhilarating, A Long Saturday invites readers to pull up a chair and listen in on a conversation with a master.

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