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George Steiner Quotes

Literary critic

George Steiner is an esteemed literary critic, born on April 23, 1929. His work spans a wide range of literary fields, including novels, poetry, drama, and philosophy.

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Famous George Steiner Quotes

“If future society assumes the contours foretold by Marxism, if the jungle of our cities turns to the polis of man and the dreams of anger are made real, the representative art will be high comedy. Art will be the laughter of intelligence, as it is in Plato, in Mozart, in Stendhal.”

Ifs Men Art Made Real Dream Turns Cities Comedy Laughter Assuming Representatives Plato Jungle Marxism Polis Future Society

Book:Language and silence: essays on language, literature, and the inhuman

Source: Language and silence: essays on language, literature, and the inhuman

“All serious art, music, literature is a critical act. It is so, firstly, in the sense of Matthew Arnold's phrase: "a criticism of life." Be it realistic, fantastic, Utopian or satiric, the construct of the artist is a counter-statement to the world.”

World Art Life Is Artist Literature Serious Criticism Critical Statements Fantastic Phrases Realistic Constructs Utopian Matthew Art Music

Book:Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?

Source: Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?

“To a degree which is difficult to determine, the esoteric impulse in twentieth-century music, literature and the arts reflects calculation. It looks to the flattery of academic and hermeneutic notice. Reciprocally, the academy turns towards that which appears to require its exegetic, cryptographic skills.”

Looks Art Turns Literature Difficult Century Skills Degrees Determine Impulse Academic Flattery Twentieth Century Academy Calculations Esoteric Hermeneutics

Book:Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?

Source: Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?

“For it is a plain fact that, most certainly in the West, the writings, works of art, musical compositions which are of central reference, comport that which is "grave and constant" (Joyce's epithets) in the mystery of our condition.”

Writing Art Facts Mystery Conditions Constant West Musical Graves Works Of Art Composition Joyce Epithet Musical Composition

Book:Real Presences

Source: Real Presences

“The Oresteia, King Lear, Dostoevsky's 'The Devils' no less than the art of Giotto or the 'Passions' of Bach, inquire into, dramatize, the relations of man and woman to the existence of the gods or of God.”

Men Art Passion Existence Kings Devil Men And Women Relation Lear Giotto

Author:George Steiner

“The Socratic demonstration of the ultimate unity of tragic and comic drama is forever lost. But the proof is in the art of Chekhov.”

Art Lost Forever Drama Ultimate Unity Proof Comic Tragic Demonstration Chekhov Socratic

Book:The death of tragedy

Source: The death of tragedy

“I believe that a work of art, like metaphors in language, can ask the most serious, difficult questions in a way which really makes the readers answer for themselves; that the work of art far more than an essay or a tract involves the reader, challenges him directly and brings him into the argument.”

Way Believe Art Asks Language I Believe Difficult Challenges Answers Serious Reader Argument Metaphor Works Of Art Essays Difficult Questions

Author:George Steiner

“Literature and the arts are also criticism in a more particular and practical sense. They embody an expository reflection on, a value judgement of, the inheritance and context to which they pertain.”

Art Values Literature Particular Reflection Criticism Practicals Judgement Inheritance

Book:Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?

Source: Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?

About the Author

Born: April 23, 1929
Known for: Literary critic
Quotes: 103

Books & Sources

George Steiner: A ReaderRelated source material

Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?Related source material

In Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of CultureRelated source material

Language and SilenceRelated source material

Real PresencesRelated source material

After Babel: Aspects of Language and TranslationRelated source material

No Passion SpentRelated source material

The death of tragedyRelated source material

Language and silence: essays on language, literature, and the inhumanRelated source material

A Long Saturday: ConversationsRelated source material

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