Glenn Hughes examines the ways in which six literary modernists - Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, and Bob Dylan - have explored the human relationship to a transcendent mystery of meaning. Hughes argues that visions of transcendence are, perhaps surprisingly, a significant feature in modernist literature, and that these authors' works account for many of the options for interpreting what transcendent reality might be.

This work is unique in its extended focus, in a comparative study spanning a century, on the persistence and centrality in modernist literature of the struggle to understand and articulate the dependence of human meaning on the mystery of transcendent meaning. Hughes shows us that each of these authors is a mystic in his or her way, and that none are tempted by the modern inclination to suppose that meaning originates with human beings. Together, they address one of the most difficult and important challenges of modern literature: how to be a mystic in modernity.

I consider this book to be absolutely brilliant. The authors it discusses are central to the modernist movement in literature, and Hughes offers a new perspective regarding what makes them important. His use of philosophy to deepen his literary analysis is especially valuable, and he uses it to make a compelling case for the centrality of the theme of transcendence to their works. He explains his thesis so clearly and illustrates it so well that I think even a reader averse to that theme would recognize its importance to these authors."—Eugene Webb, University of Washington, author of The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature

Glenn Hughes is Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's University at San Antonio, Texas. He is the author or editor of several books, including Mystery and Myth in the Philosophy of Eric Voegelin (University of Missouri Press).