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Ernst Bloch

The Pugnacious Philosopher of Hope

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  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jack Zipes

    1. Minneapolis, USA

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  • Introduces Bloch to new readers, and to those wishing to understand more about the importance of utopian thought

  • Explores present-day implications of both Bloch's philosophy and criticisms of it

  • Explains how and why Bloch's philosophy of hope has always appealed to theologians

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Reintroducing Ernst Bloch: In Pursuit of Utopia

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 1-24

  3. Toward the Realization of Anticipatory Illumination

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 25-41

  4. Ernst Bloch and the Dialectics of Obscenity and Inequality

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 43-63

  5. The Pugnacity and Speculation of Hope, or Why We Want a Better World

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 65-83

  6. The Messianic Power of Fantasy in the Bible

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 85-101

  7. Ernst Bloch’s Enlightened View of the Fairy Tale and Utopian Longing

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 103-118

  8. The Utopian Function of Fairy Tales and Fantasy: Ernst Bloch the Marxist and J. R. R. Tolkien the Catholic

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 119-148

  9. Kitsch, Colportage, and the Liberating Potential of Vor-Schein in Fairy Tales

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 149-175

  10. Epilogue: Why Hope?

    • Jack Zipes
    Pages 177-187

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 189-213
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Keywords

About this book

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to and overview of the life and philosophy of Ernst Bloch. Bloch has had a strange fate in the English-speaking world. He wrote his famous three-volume opus, The Principle of Hope, while living in exile in the United States from 1938 to 1940. It was first published, however, in East Germany in the 1950s after he had returned to Europe and became a professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig. Gradually, his other numerous works became better known and widespread in Europe and scholars in the US and UK started to take note of his works. Yet, he has still remained a somewhat neglected figure in the humanities. While this book does not set out to entirely rectify this neglect, it does offer readers an introduction to Bloch’s works and the opportunity to understand more about the importance of utopian thought. Through an exploration of some of Bloch’s more controversial communist leanings and relationship to the Soviet Union, a study of Bloch’s utopian quest, and even a comparison with J. R. R. Tolkien, this comprehensive study demonstrates just how interesting a figure Ernst Bloch really was, and how his philosophy of hope has laid the basis for secular humanism. 

Reviews

“Zipes’s book opens new perspectives and gives reflective insight based on Bloch’s thought which in general is hard in Blochian studies.” (Antonina Strano, Bloch-Almanach, Issue 19, 2019)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Minneapolis, USA

    Jack Zipes

About the author

Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, USA. Some of his recent publications include: The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films (2010), The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012), and Grimm Legacies: The Magic Power of Fairy Tales (2014). He has also translated the first 1812/15 edition of the Grimms' tales, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (2014). Most recently he has published The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales (2017), Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales through Picture Postcards (2017). Fearless Ivan and His Faithful Horse Double Hump (2018), and Fairy Tales and Fables from Weimar Days (2018). 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Ernst Bloch

  • Book Subtitle: The Pugnacious Philosopher of Hope

  • Authors: Jack Zipes

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21174-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-21173-8Published: 16 August 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-21176-9Published: 16 August 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-21174-5Published: 03 August 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVIII, 213

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Twentieth-Century Literature, European Literature

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