Transformative Change in Western Thought: A History of Metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood By Ingo Gildenhard
Book transformative change in western thought pdf
This groundbreaking volume maps the shifting place and function of marvelous transformations from antiquity to the present day Shape shifting taking animal bodies miracles transubstantiation alchemy and mutation recur and echo throughout ancient and modern writing and thinking and continue in science fiction today as tales of gene splicing and hybridisation The idea of metamorphosis lies in uneasy coexistence with orderly world views and it is often cast out or attributed to enemies Augustine and the church fathers consider shape shifting ungodly Enlightenment thinkers suppress alchemy as unscientific genetically modified wheat and stem cell research are stigmatised as unnatural Yet the very possibility of radical transformation inspires hope just as it frightens A provocative theorising trans historical history this book ranges across classics literature history philosophy theology and anthropology From Homer and Ovid to Proust and H P Lovecraft and through figures from Proteus to Kafka s Fly and toSpiderman four historical surveys are combined with nine case studies to show the malleable yet persistent presence of transformation throughout Western cultural history Transformative Change in Western Thought A History of Metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood.