Dark Mirror: The Sense of Injustice in Modern European and American Literature

Product description Review Sterne argues that trials in literature provide us with pictures of the contemporary culture's attitudes toward justice. After tracing the development of natural law in literature from Homer to about 1880, he presents readings of texts that, he argues, see justice in "murky evolutionary or revolutionary terms" (Martin Du Gard's Jean Barois, 1913; Dreiser's An American Tragedy, 1925; Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, 1948; Koestler's Darkness at Noon, 1940); as residing only in the grace of "a mysterious, loving God," (the late Tolstoy, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, 1912; Mauriac's Th'er`ese Desqueyroux, 1927); or "as impossible in an absurd world" (Melville's Billy Budd, 1948; Kafka's The Trial, 1937; Camus's The Outsider, 1946; Kundera's The Joke, CH, Oct'69). Unfortunately, lack of theoretical structure and broadly based scholarship will limit the book's usefulness to general readers who want to consider questions of representations of justice in Europe and America and to students of literature interested in readings of canonical texts based on Sterne's interpretation of natural law. Contains adequate notes. All levels.-- "--Choice" From the Back Cover Dark Mirror is the first study of European and American literature that comprehensively treats the historical conflict between idealistic (natural law) and 'realistic' or cynical approaches to the idea of justice. Works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Mauriac, Martin du Gard, Dreiser, Brecht, Koestler, Melville, Kafka, Camus, Cozzens, Snow, and others are examined. About the Author Richard C. Sterne is Professor of English at Simmons College, Boston. Read more