Gabriel Josipovici Critical Essay | Critical Review by Frank Kermode

Critical Review by Frank Kermode

SOURCE: “Simple Mysteries,” in Times Literary Supplement, February 25, 2000, pp. 4–5.

In the following review, Kermode positions Josipovici within the world of modern criticism based on the arguments on literary theory presented in On Trust.

Gabriel Josipovici's new book [On Trust] is not a simple collection of disparate essays. It has a theme that recurs through his discussions of Genesis, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Kierkegaard, Proust, Kafka, Eliot, Beckett, Wittgenstein and others along the way. Although he attaches great importance to this theme, he must have been conscious of its dangers. His critical observation on A. W. Schlegel might be adapted to question his own procedures: Schlegel has been saying that Christianity, by bringing to consciousness “the intimation that we aspire to a happiness unobtainable here,” has ensured that ours is a poetry of desire and not, like that of the ancients, a poetry of joy. “Schlegel,” says Josipovici,...
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