1. Larkin's Encounters with Dionysus: What Goes on in the Shade?
- Author
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Gelineau, David
- Subjects
- *
PHILOSOPHY in literature , *RATIONALISM - Abstract
The two voices in Philip Larkin's work have often been noted by critics, but none have noted the debt that this division owes to Friedrich Nietzsche. Especially influenced by the idea of the Dionysian and Apollonian from The Birth of Tragedy, Larkin follows Nietzsche's dictum that great art occurs when "Dionysus speaks the language of Apollo; and Apollo, finally the language of Dionysus." This article shows how Larkin's poetry engages in a dialectic between Apollonian rationalism and Dionysian anti-rationalism throughout his career by looking at "At Grass," "Dublinesque," and culminating in "The Whitsun Weddings," where the Apollonian-Dionysian dialectic is most explicit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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