Laurence Sterne Revisited: Lawrence Sterne Revisited: TEAS 532 (Twayne's English authors series) - Hardcover

Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works.

Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work.

Each volume features:

-- A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works

-- A brief biography of the author

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Kraft combines extensive analysis of Sterne's best-known works with consideration of his earlier satires, sermons, and political writings; hers is the first critical study to consider the whole of Sterne's career, offering a rich account of his life and of the theological and philosophical context of his work. While attentive to the critical appeal of Sterne for a postmodern readership, Kraft focuses on the eighteenth-century context, with special emphasis on Sterne's religious beliefs. Kraft's chapter on Sterne's pre-Tristram Shandy life and a chapter devoted to his sermons provide the background for an examination of the central paradox around which all Christian belief revolves - the union of immortal spirit and mortal flesh. Kraft contends Sterne viewed sexual longing as both an indication of human fallibility and a spiritual gift. To understand how it can be both simultaneously is to learn to dwell in the ambiguity that is the essence of Sterne's vision and a fundamental tenet of his faith.