Otherworldly Hamlet

No other book on Hamlet has yet to consider the way in which the play in its four major aspects of Sorrow, Sexuality, Revenge, and Death, consistently reflects the otherworldly direction of Hamlet's thought and experience ... the elegant and subtle prose lends force and dignity to the argument ... a remarkable and provocative contribution to Shakespeare Studies. {Corona Sharp, English Studies in Canada}

In these essays, John O'Meara re-assesses both the tragic limitations and inherent promise of Romantic tradition in the interpretation of Shakespeare. The philosophical theory of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, is brought forward as consummating that tradition. Building on concepts which Anthroposophy supplies O'Meara proceeds to a fresh reading of Shakespeare's work. A wide range of plays is covered from Richard II to The Tempest, with special focus on Othello and King Lear. The endings of these plays, O'Meara sees as pivotal to Shakespeare's evolution into a final phase prophetic of the Romantic experience to come which Steiner fulfils.

OMearas work is the perfect supplement to [Ted] Hughess Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being, shedding further illumination into those areas where Hughess penetrating lens finally appears to dim. [This work] shines utterly clear light on the path of understanding we may re-win with regard to myth, forcing the reader to face the incredible starkness of the prospect we faceand the lack of optionsever closing inand also giving the reader the necessary clues to follow, particularly Barfield, Shakespeare and Rudolf Steiner. Richard Ramsbotham, author of Who Wrote Bacon? William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and James I Very interesting stuff. Particularly where you parallel the break through the tragic dead end to the transcendental-redemptive solution--that I follow from Macbeth through Lear to the last plays--with the Steinerian view of the same progress. Ted Hughes on Othellos Sacrifice, Letter to John OMeara, 21 November, 1996, in the Ted Hughes Archives, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia This volume brings together virtually all of the published shorter critical work of John OMeara, gathered from over 30 years of production. What emerges is an extensive, uniquely challenging interpretation of the evolution of, for the most part, English literary history, from Shakespeares time to our own. excellent Shakespearean explorationsThe idea of Lutheran depravity without Lutheran grace or Lutheran-Calvinist justification is very strong and original Anthony Gash, author of The Substance of Shadows: Shakespeares Dialogue with Plato OMeara sets out to demonstrate... the essential fact that full encounter with human depravity was[/is] a necessary step in the attaining of true [otherworldly] Imagination. Eric Philips-Oxford, on The New School of the Imagination from the Sektion fur Schone Wissenschaften, the Goetheanum, Newsletter, Issue No. 3, Winter/Spring 2008-2009.

Twelve scholars take us on a journey through twelve books that have defined the methodologies and orthodoxies of key disciplines within the university curriculum. These books have not only been formative for their respective disciplines, but have reshaped the university and continue to reframe our understanding of education. Each chapter places a Great Book in its historical context, summarizes the key ideas, and assesses the influence of the text on its discipline and society as a whole. In addition, each contributor offers an evaluation from a Christian perspective, explaining both the benefits of the book and the challenges it presents to a Christian worldview and philosophy of education.

The longstanding challenge and problem of living through tragedy, as opposed to living beyond it or simply carrying on in spite of it, is highlighted in this extensive and in-depth scholarly study. Shakespeare was able to live through tragedy and consequently could come into those higher evolutionary states of mind and being, until now so little known, that are so impressively represented in his last plays. Remembering Shakespeare, in this year of the 400th anniversary of his death, would seem to call especially for this most far-reaching aspect of his achievement, for so long unrecognized, to be at last duly noted and laid open to view.

A Trilogy bringing together titles by John O’Meara that are also individually available from iUniverse. The Modern Debacle Containing close readings of work by Beckett, Hemingway, and T.S.Eliot; Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Arthur Miller, and Brecht; Plath, Hughes, and Robert Graves, and W.B. Yeats. “beautifully and fluently written and ingenious in its combination of catastrophes” --Anthony Gash, Drama Head, The University of East Anglia Myth, Depravity, Impasse An in-depth study of Robert Graves, the modern theory of myth and Ted Hughes, with further reference to Shakespeare and to Keats. “I am very sympathetic to the cause of myth and especially in relation to literature” --Michael Bell , author of Literature, Modernism and Myth in a letter to John O’Meara This Life, This Death An extensive study of Wordsworth’s great life-crisis, with additional reference to S.T. Coleridge, and to P.B. Shelley. “Of this Wordsworth book, one recognizes its truth, its breadth of coverage and awareness, and above all its depth...” --Richard Ramsbotham, editor of Vernon Watkins, New Selected Poems, Carcanet Press.

A Trilogy bringing together titles by John OMeara that are also individually available from iUniverse. The Modern Debacle Containing close readings of work by Beckett, Hemingway, and T.S.Eliot; Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Arthur Miller, and Brecht; Plath, Hughes, and Robert Graves, and W.B. Yeats. beautifully and fluently written and ingenious in its combination of catastrophes --Anthony Gash, Drama Head, The University of East Anglia Myth, Depravity, Impasse An in-depth study of Robert Graves, the modern theory of myth and Ted Hughes, with further reference to Shakespeare and to Keats. I am very sympathetic to the cause of myth and especially in relation to literature --Michael Bell, author of Literature, Modernism and Myth in a letter to John OMeara This Life, This Death An extensive study of Wordsworths great life-crisis, with additional reference to S.T. Coleridge, and to P.B. Shelley. Of this Wordsworth book, one recognizes its truth, its breadth of coverage and awareness, and above all its depth... --Richard Ramsbotham, editor of Vernon Watkins, New Selected Poems, Carcanet Press

How can we know the great Goddess again? How worthy are we of that mythical experience? How are we related to that experience in our deepest depravity? And why has the mythical experience grown so opaque to us in our post-Romantic, modern world? These are the main issues arising out of Western literary tradition that John OMeara explores in this book. In the work of Robert Graves, Shakespeare, and Keats, OMeara sees the deepest expression at once of our most far-reaching hopes and our sadly alienated case in respect of any mythical experience we may conceive of having in the immediate future.