Anne Carson's 'Book of Isaiah' and the secular unconscious

This paper furthers my argument that the religious messianic figure in secular projects reflects a trauma of secularism. I make my case through an analysis of Anne Carson's poetic treatment of the biblical text The Book of Isaiah, a text that has been valuable for both Christians and Jews in defining the messiah (Isaiah 53) and in promoting Judaism's role as a "light to the nations" (49:6). Carson's poetic revision of this biblical text for a secular audience explains how the trauma of secularism is an issue that we, as members of a modern society, unconsciously inherit, replete with the blind assumptions and prejudices that serve secular ideology.