| Using Matthew Arnold's distinction between Hebraism and Hellenism, this study defines and traces the "Hebraic" thread running through English literature since the Reformation as a background to two nineteenth-century works: Matthew Arnold's Literature and Dogma, and George Eliot's Hebraic novel, Daniel Deronda. The study focuses particularly on the literature arising out of two periods of intense Puritan fervour in England--the seventeenth century, illustrated by the works of John Milton and John Bunyan, and the nineteenth century, ushered in by the contrasting "Hebraic" expressions of William Blake and William Wordsworth. Nineteenth-century Hebraism is linked to the fascination with historical origins, including the findings of biblical criticism, the Gothic revival and theories of race. Interwoven into this study of Hebraism is an examination of how English self-identity is linked to the Hebrew people, both as the ancient source of Britain's religious and cultural heritage, and as players in England's cultural and political development. A major portion of this study is a reading of Daniel Deronda that sees Eliot's Hebraism as the centre and unifying principle of the novel. |
