Perspectives In Literary Symbolism

This provocative collection of international essays deals chiefly with mythical, archetypal, and esoteric symbolism in world literature: the mythical heritage in poetry, the relations between archetype and metaphor, poetic symbolism which derives from alchemistic, gnostic, or hermetic tradition, and the relations between mythos and logos.

Through analysis of specific examples of literature—the fairy tale, the Grail legend, poetry, works of Dante, Milton, Goethe, Baudelaire, and Joyce—new perspectives are disclosed, concepts which bring new insight into the structure and meaning of the works under consideration. This collection represents the first volume of an important series which bears the title “Yearbook of Comparative Criticism."