The Myth of the Fall in Nineteenth-Century Literature by Lind... - 9780198969570

The Myth of the Fall in Nineteenth-Century LiteratureAuthor(s): Linda Freedman\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Oxford University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Oxford University Press\nISBN-13: 9780198969570, 978-0198969570\nSynopsis\nWhy does the myth of the Fall continue to matter in an increasingly secularised world? \nWhy do we continue to imagine a point where everything went wrong, and why must we imagine that things were once better than they are now? \n\nModern political theodicies repeatedly play to the myth of the Fall as empowering human authorship, promising to 'take back control' or 'make America great again'. The myth of the Fall is so absorbed into western culture that we sometimes don't even notice it's there, let alone think about why and how it has persisted through secularisation. It is often pernicious, playing on feelings of innate supremacy and lost dominion. Linda Freedman shows that it is also creative, the first act of disobedience and resistance which set new.