Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Kathleen Raine: Classics and Consciousness

Kathleen Raine: Classics and Consciousness

Messenger, Jenny
Jansen, Laura

Hardcover

Series: Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing

PhilosophyLiterary CriticismFiction Anthologies

ISBN10: 1350260541
ISBN13: 9781350260542
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Jul 10 2025
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.97
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

For the poet and scholar Kathleen Raine, ancient texts were not obsolete, but vital handbooks for reading reality. Drawing on Graeco-Roman philosophy alongside modernist receptions of the ancient world, this book is the first study of her engagement with classical antiquity. Raine's interpretation of the classical past not only informed her literary work, but also gave her a compelling perspective, which located consciousness as the basis of reality. This way of seeing the world, traceable from antiquity to the present day via the 'perennial philosophy', claimed little distinction between inner self and outer world, and stressed the interconnectedness of all beings.

Jenny Messenger explores Raine's use of Graeco-Roman philosophy as source texts for understanding consciousness, articulated throughout her poetry, scholarship and autobiographical writing. Raine believed there were multiple planes of consciousness, across which symbolic poetry and prose could operate to reach the highest levels of being. The creative arts were even capable of shaping consciousness, expanding or shrinking the scope of what could be experienced. Though she won acclaim during her lifetime, her literary reputation has been overshadowed by her relationship with writer and naturalist Gavin Maxwell. This book moves the focus back to Raine's work, bringing her complex classicism to a wider audience.

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