Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T21:47:12.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The world projects human responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Anthony Dykes
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Get access

Summary

This chapter falls into three main areas of discussion. The first concern is to trace the argument of the poem itself, that the human will is not only powerful enough to reject God's will (and the devil's snares) but is powerful enough to change the very configuration of the world. Therefore landscape reveals human depravity. Sin is the cause of the distortions in creation. This misuse of the human will is revealed, through landscape, at two levels: the level of original sin and the level of actual sin. We see the two distinct types of misuse of the will revealed in two landscapes. These two different landscapes, which the human will creates, are revealed to the reader in the exemplum of two ‘Fratres’, readers of the world, who are confronted with a decision about two types of landscape at a junction in the road (789–801). The second section of the chapter examines a highly ‘painted’ sequence in the poem. It is a key passage, and it would be useful to describe it as a ‘panel’, as it is a distinct portion of the Hamartigenia, and in that way not unlike a leaf of a triptych; but it is a sequence which is intimately related to the global task of discerning the poem's meaning. A full examination of the panel of the ‘Fratres’ reveals to the responsible reader the erotic content of actual sin, as actual sin is understood and presented by Prudentius.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reading Sin in the World
The Hamartigenia of Prudentius and the Vocation of the Responsible Reader
, pp. 39 - 101
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×