Date of Award
Spring 5-2-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Joseph Cermatori
Second Advisor
April Bernard
Third Advisor
Margaret Ann Greaves
Abstract
This paper explores the contradiction Auden creates in his simultaneous description of the European North (The English and Scottish Highlands, Scotland, Iceland, and northern Norway) as an “Eden” and his awareness of the violent and pagan history of these places. It proposes that these dialectically opposed visions of the European landscape can be reconciled through a synthesis rooted in Auden’s eclectic version of history—both theological and secular—and his own desire for an Eden that is informed by the spontaneity of the Homeric Arcadia, the gravity of the Christian Eden, and apophatic theology.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Brouder, Merrill, "Relandscaping Eden: Northern European Topography as Theology in Auden’s Poems" (2022). English Honors Theses. 64.
https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol/64
Included in
European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons, Other Philosophy Commons