Eros, Bittersweet

Anne Carson

In the poetry of ancient poets such as Sappho and Archilochus, Eros, the Greek god of desire, is depicted as a paradox that can be described by the word 'bittersweet'. In Eros, bittersweet, Anne Carson explores the far-reaching implications of this contradiction. She shows how the literary depiction of desire is related to phenomena as diverse as the invention of the Greek alphabet, the will to know and the dynamics of metaphors. Based on the work of Roland Barthes, Lev Tolstoi and Virginia Woolf, among others, Carson broadens her search for the connection between erotic desire and the attraction of knowledge. Again and again she discovers a movement beyond the known, a reaching towards the unknown. Eros is a verb.