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" Composing Darkness”: Romantic Prophecy And The Phenomenology Of History, Christopher Michael Bundock

Digitized Theses

In contrast to the Greek concept of prophecy as a form of prediction, Romantic prophecy rehabilitates a version of Hebrew prophecy that involves a more ambivalent relationship to history and time. That is, while the rise of prophecy in Romanticism might—like the rise of historiography more broadly—seem to organize and contain political and epistemological revolution, closer examination reveals that, in fact, this very attempt at hyper-organization becomes necessary only because of a deep and pervasive sense of historical discontinuity. Hence, while prophecy might aim to ameliorate disorder, in fact it draws attention to and exacerbates this same disorder. This uncertainty …