Literary theory Books

2156 products


  • Beautiful Democracy

    The University of Chicago Press Beautiful Democracy

    Book SynopsisExplores the intersection of beauty and violence by examining university lectures and course materials on aesthetics along with riots, acts of domestic terrorism, and magic lantern exhibitions. This work suggests that the distance separating academic thinking and popular wisdom about social transformation is narrower than we generally suppose.Trade Review"Beautiful Democracy is an important book, reestablishing aesthetics as a vital issue both within the immediate field of American literature and far beyond it. It engages a long and complexly developed conversation on the politics of form, using rich archival material, ranging from college curricula, black print culture, and the history of film." - Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University"

    £28.50

  • Drama Play  Game  English Festive Culture in the

    The University of Chicago Press Drama Play Game English Festive Culture in the

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis text demonstrates that the theatrum repudiated by medieval clerics was not theatre as we understand the term today. The author contends that critics have misrepresented Western stage history because they have assumed that theatrum designates a place where drama is performed.

    2 in stock

    £58.90

  • Guys Like Us  Citing Masculinity in Cold War

    The University of Chicago Press Guys Like Us Citing Masculinity in Cold War

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis work considers how writers of the 1950s and 1960s struggled to craft literature that countered the politics of consensus and anticommunist hysteria in America, and how notions of masculinity figured in their effort.

    1 in stock

    £76.00

  • Guys Like Us  Citing Masculinity in Cold War

    The University of Chicago Press Guys Like Us Citing Masculinity in Cold War

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis work considers how writers of the 1950s and 1960s struggled to craft literature that countered the politics of consensus and anticommunist hysteria in America, and how notions of masculinity figured in their effort.

    10 in stock

    £38.58

  • Victorian Sexual Dissidence

    The University of Chicago Press Victorian Sexual Dissidence

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisLate-20th-century critical work on the late-Victorian period has furnished a vocabulary for discussing gender and sexuality. Terms include homo/hetero and patriarchal/feminist. This text exploits that framework to show how Victorians imagined difference in ways that continue to challenge.

    15 in stock

    £34.20

  • Signs and Cities  Black Literary Postmodernism

    University of Chicago Press Signs and Cities Black Literary Postmodernism

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisDubey argues that for African American studies, postmodernity best names a period, beginning in the early 1970s, marked by acute disenchantment with the promises of urban modernity and of print literacy.

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Signs and Cities Black Literary Postmodernism

    The University of Chicago Press Signs and Cities Black Literary Postmodernism

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisDubey argues that for African American studies, postmodernity best names a period, beginning in the early 1970s, marked by acute disenchantment with the promises of urban modernity and of print literacy.

    15 in stock

    £26.60

  • Pornography the Theory  What Utilitarianism Did

    The University of Chicago Press Pornography the Theory What Utilitarianism Did

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisFerguson argues that the emergence of pornography as a literary phenomenon in Western culture can be tied to the development of utilitarian philosophy. He contends that considering the usefulness of something rather than its individual essence diverts our attention from individual identities.

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Stoicism and Emotion

    The University of Chicago Press Stoicism and Emotion

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFerguson argues that the emergence of pornography as a literary phenomenon in Western culture can be tied to the development of utilitarian philosophy. He contends that considering the usefulness of something rather than its individual essence diverts our attention from individual identities.

    15 in stock

    £26.74

  • Irony in Action  Anthropology Practice  the Moral

    The University of Chicago Press Irony in Action Anthropology Practice the Moral

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis collection is based on the idea that irony now extends beyond its classification as a figure of speech and is increasingly recognized as one of the major modes of human experience. The essays cover the limits to irony's liberating qualities as well as irony's more positive dimensions.

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Irony in Action Anthropology Practice and the

    The University of Chicago Press Irony in Action Anthropology Practice and the

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis collection is based on the idea that irony now extends beyond its classification as a figure of speech and is increasingly recognized as one of the major modes of human experience. The essays cover the limits to irony's liberating qualities as well as irony's more positive dimensions.

    1 in stock

    £30.40

  • Stanley Cavell and Literary Skepticism

    The University of Chicago Press Stanley Cavell and Literary Skepticism

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisStanley Cavell's work is distinctive not only in its importance to philosophy but also for its remarkable interdisciplinary range. Cavell is read avidly by students of film, photography, painting, and music, but especially by students of literature, for whom Cavell offers major readings of Thoreau, Emerson, Shakespeare, and others. In this first book-length study of Cavell's writings, Michael Fischer examines Cavell's relevance to the controversies surrounding poststructuralist literary theory, particularly works by Jacques Derrida, J. Hillis Miller, Paul de Man, and Stanley Fish. Throughout his study, Fischer focuses on skepticism, a central concern of Cavell's multifaceted work. Cavell, following J. L. Austin and Wittgenstein, does not refute the radical epistemological questioning of Descartes, Hume, and others, but rather characterizes skepticism as a significant human possibility or temptation. As presented by Fischer, Cavell's accounts of both external-world and other-minds skept

    15 in stock

    £24.70

  • The Poets Work 29 Poets on the Origins and

    The University of Chicago Press The Poets Work 29 Poets on the Origins and

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    15 in stock

    £26.60

  • The Degradation of American History

    The University of Chicago Press The Degradation of American History

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisAmerican historical writing has traditionally been a form of moral reflection. However this study argues that, in the disillusionment following the 1960s, history abandoned its redemptive potential, and adopted the methodology of the social sciences. It describes the reasons for this change.

    15 in stock

    £28.50

  • The Premodern Condition

    The University of Chicago Press The Premodern Condition

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisIdentifies and explains a surprising affinity for medievalism and medieval studies among the leading figures of critical theory. This book contains original essays by Bataille and Bourdieu - translated English - that testify in various ways to the strange persistence of medievalisms in French postwar avant-garde writings.Trade Review"The Premodern Condition is an important and original contribution to emerging debates about the history and significance of critical theory. Holsinger demonstrates that twentieth-century theoretical discourses, as they become separated from nineteenth-century humanistic and social-scientific disciplines, engage in a series of brilliant defamiliarizing moves fundamentally grounded in medievalism." - Amy Hollywood, University of Chicago"

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • The Book of the Heart

    The University of Chicago Press The Book of the Heart

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this text, Eric Jager traces the history and psychology of the self-as-text concept from antiquity to the late 20th century. He focuses on the Middle Ages, when the metaphor of a book of the heart modelled on the manuscript codex attained its most vivid expressions in literature and art.

    2 in stock

    £76.00

  • The Book of the Heart

    The University of Chicago Press The Book of the Heart

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this text, Eric Jager traces the history and psychology of the self-as-text concept from antiquity to the late 20th century. He focuses on the Middle Ages, when the metaphor of a "book of the heart" modelled on the manuscript codex attained its most vivid expressions in literature and art.

    15 in stock

    £24.70

  • Readings at the Edge of Literature

    The University of Chicago Press Readings at the Edge of Literature

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisMyra Jehlen's aim in these essays is to read for what she calls the edge of literature: the point at which writing seems unable to say more, which is also, for Jehlen, the threshold of the real.Trade Review"Readings at the Edge of Literature explores the contradictions that emerge whenever the ideal called America tries to identify itself in our literature. This collection is alert and alive, full of intellectual energy, stunning perceptions, and analytical brilliance." - Richard Poirier, author of Trying It Out in America: Literary and Other Performances

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Readings at the Edge of Literature

    The University of Chicago Press Readings at the Edge of Literature

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisMyra Jehlen's aim in these essays is to read for what she calls the edge of literature: the point at which writing seems unable to say more, which is also, for Jehlen, the threshold of the real.Trade Review"Readings at the Edge of Literature explores the contradictions that emerge whenever the ideal called America tries to identify itself in our literature. This collection is alert and alive, full of intellectual energy, stunning perceptions, and analytical brilliance." - Richard Poirier, author of Trying It Out in America: Literary and Other Performances

    15 in stock

    £26.60

  • Reading the East India Company 17201840  Colonial

    The University of Chicago Press Reading the East India Company 17201840 Colonial

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisBetty Joseph offers an account of how archives - and the practice of archiving - shaped colonial ideologies in Britain and British-controlled India during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Reading the East India Company 17201840  Colonial

    The University of Chicago Press Reading the East India Company 17201840 Colonial

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisBetty Joseph offers an account of how archives - and the practice of archiving - shaped colonial ideologies in Britain and British-controlled India during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

    10 in stock

    £29.88

  • The Divison of Literature  Or the University in

    University of Chicago Press The Divison of Literature Or the University in

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisHow has literature become established as a separate domain within the university? Demonstrating that these questions of division are intricately related, Peggy Kamuf explores in this text, the space that the university devotes to the study of literature.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Catachresis and Institution 1: The University Founders 2: The Rhetoric of Ruin 3: The Walls of Science 4: Peguy and the Event of History 5: The University in Deconstruction Prologue: The Impasse of Literary History Prologue: Melville's Credit Card Epilogue: A Future for It Notes Index

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • The Division of Literature Or the University in

    The University of Chicago Press The Division of Literature Or the University in

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisHow has literature become established as a separate domain within the university? Demonstrating that these questions of division are intricately related, Peggy Kamuf explores in this text, the space that the university devotes to the study of literature.

    15 in stock

    £30.40

  • Lunar Voices  Of Tragedy Poetry Fiction  Thought

    University of Chicago Press Lunar Voices Of Tragedy Poetry Fiction Thought

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis text reflects on nine writers and philosophers, including Heidegger, Derrida, Blanchot and Holderlin, in a personal exploration of the meaning of sensual love, language, tragedy and death. The moon provides a unifying image that guides a scene in which literature and philosophy become one.Table of ContentsPreface 1: The Sensuality of Tragedy, the Tragedy of Sensuality Antiquity and Modernity: The Epochal Suspension of Empedocles Time, Tragic Downgoing, Affirmation Sensual Tragedy, Tragic Sensuality 2: Stuff. Thread. Point. Fire: Holderlin's Dissolution The Reproductive Act The Bypassed Terminus At the Burning Point Digression on Heidegger and Innigkeit Hyperbollipsis 3: The Source of the Wave: Rhythm in the Languages of Poetry and Thinking Antiphon The Animating Wave Fetters Saxifrage Rhythms of Presencing and Absencing 4: The Lunar Voice of the Sister The Selenic Situation of the Sister Upon the Being and Breast of a Girl The Generation of the Unborn Evil Most Furious. Dissension between Brother and Sister How to Gain a Sister? In (the) Place of God One Geschlecht: (S)he-lovers, Sea-lovers 5: "I, an Animal of the Forest...": Blanchot's Kafka The Feminine World and Literary Ambiguity The Animal Kingdom of the Writer Solitude, Silence, and the Sister The Narrative Voice An Incarnation Openly Bearing Its Emptiness The Burrow The Moss 6: Lunar Solitudes: The Eternal Return of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Eternal Recurrence? of the Same? Solitudes of Love and Rancor The Solitude of Parchment Index

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Lunar Voices  Of Tragedy Poetry Fiction  Thought

    The University of Chicago Press Lunar Voices Of Tragedy Poetry Fiction Thought

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis text reflects on nine writers and philosophers, including Heidegger, Derrida, Blanchot and Holderlin, in a personal exploration of the meaning of sensual love, language, tragedy and death. The moon provides a unifying image that guides a scene in which literature and philosophy become one.

    10 in stock

    £33.84

  • More than Cool Reason

    The University of Chicago Press More than Cool Reason

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £21.85

  • Criticism and Social Change

    The University of Chicago Press Criticism and Social Change

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisCriticism and Social Change speaks with special timeliness to the role of the political intellectual (here embodied in Kenneth Burke). Lentricchia's provocative analysis demands serious reflection by American radicals.Frederic Jameson A profound meditation on relations obtaining among writing, political consciousness, and criticismthis last taken in its most general sense. It is written with passion and grace; it is shot through with learning, intimate knowledge of the critical tradition, and a deep (though by no means uncritical) understanding of the work (as well as social significance) of Kenneth Burke.Hayden White

    15 in stock

    £22.80

  • Critical Terms for Literary Study Second Edition

    The University of Chicago Press Critical Terms for Literary Study Second Edition

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis expanded edition features six new chapters, each of which provides a concise history of a literary term, critically explores the issues and questions that the term raises, and then puts theory into practice by showing the reading strategies that the term permits.Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition Introduction/Thomas McLaughlin I: Literature as Writing 1: Representation/W. J. T. Mitchell 2: Structure/John Carlos Rowe 3: Writing/Barbara Johnson 4: Discourse/Paul A. Bove 5: Narrative/J. Hillis Miller 6: Figurative Language/Thomas McLaughlin 7: Performance/Henry Sayre 8: Author/Donald E. Pease II: Interpretation 9: Interpretation/Steven Mailloux 10: Intention/Annabel Patterson 11: Unconscious/Francoise Meltzer 12: Determinacy/Indeterminacy/Gerald Graff 13: Value/Evaluation/Barbara Herrnstein Smith 14: Influence/Louis A. Renza 15: Rhetoric/Stanley Fish III: Literature, Culture, Politics 16: Culture/Stephen Greenblatt 17: Canon/John Guillory 18: Literary History/Lee Patterson 19: Gender/Myra Jehlen 20: Race/Kwame Anthony Appiah 21: Ethnicity/Werner Sollors 22: Ideology/James H. Kavanagh 23: Popular Culture/John Fiske 24: Diversity/Louis Menand 25: Imperialism/Nationalism/Seamus Deane 26: Desire/Judith Butler 27: Ethics/Geoffrey Galt Harpham 28: Class/Daniel T. O'Hara In Place of an Afterword--Someone Reading/Frank Lentricchia References List of Contributors Index

    15 in stock

    £24.70

  • University of Chicago Press Theorizing Myth Narrative Ideology and

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn "Theorizing Myth", Bruce Lincoln traces the way scholars and others have used the category of "myth" to fetishize or deride certain kinds of stories, usually those told by others.Table of ContentsPreface I: Mythos among the Greeks 1. The Prehistory of Mythos and Logos 2. From Homer through Plato II: A Modern History of Myth 3. The History of Myth from the Renaissance to the Second World War 4. Sir William's Myth of Origins 5. Nietzsche's "Blond Beast": A Genealogy 6. Dumezil's German War God III: New Directions 7. From the Second World War to the Present (and Possibly a Little Beyond) 8. Plutarch's Sibyl 9. Gautrek's Saga and the Gift Fox 10. Once Again, the Bovine's Lament 11. The Pandits and Mr. Jones Epilogue: Scholarship as Myth Notes Index

    10 in stock

    £89.52

  • Theorizing Myth Narrative Ideology and

    The University of Chicago Press Theorizing Myth Narrative Ideology and

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn "Theorizing Myth", Bruce Lincoln traces the way scholars and others have used the category of "myth" to fetishize or deride certain kinds of stories, usually those told by others.Table of ContentsPart 1 Mythos among the Greeks: the prehistory of mythos and logos; from Homer through Plato. Part 2 A modern history of myth: the history of myth from the Renaissance to World War II; Sir William's myth of origins; Nietzsche's "Blond Beast" - a genealogy; Dumezil's German war God. Part 3 New directions: from World War II to the present (and possibly a little beyond); Plutarch's Siby; Gautrek's saga and the gift fox; once again, the Bovine's Lament; the Pandits and Mr Jones; epilogue - scholarship as myth.

    15 in stock

    £28.50

  • The Freudian Robot

    The University of Chicago Press The Freudian Robot

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe identity and role of writing has evolved in the age of digital media. But how did writing itself make digital media possible in the first place? This title offers a study of the political history of digital writing and its fateful entanglement with the Freudian unconscious.Trade Review"An interesting and significant book. The Freudian Robot is part of a new trend in the humanities that is reinventing comparative studies in light of digital media." - Eugene Thacker, Georgia Institute of Technology"

    15 in stock

    £26.60

  • The Economy of Character  Novels Market Culture

    The University of Chicago Press The Economy of Character Novels Market Culture

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisAt the start of the 18th century, literary characters referred as much to letters and typefaces as it did to persons in books. However, this text shows how, by the 19th century, readers used transactions with characters to accommodate themselves to newly-commmercialized social relations.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Recognizing Characters Pt. 1: The Economies of Characteristic Writing 1: Fleshing Out Characters 2: Fictions of Social Circulation, 1742-1782 Pt. 2: Inside Stories 3: "Round" Characters and Romantic-Period Reading Relations 4: Agoraphobia and Interiority in Frances Burney's Fiction 5: Jane Austen and the Social Machine Conclusion: The Real Thing and the "Work" of Literature in Nineteenth-Century Culture Notes Index

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • The Scholars Art

    The University of Chicago Press The Scholars Art

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor Jerome McGann, the purpose of scholarship is to preserve and pass on cultural heritage, a feat accomplished through discussion among scholars and interested nonspecialists. In this collection of thirteen essays, McGann both addresses and exemplifies that discussion and the vocation it supports.Trade Review"Jerome McGann is an internationally influential critic, with a long career not only of scholarly labor but of setting the agenda for critical adventures, theoretical reflection, and editorial precision, low-tech and hi-tech. The engaging array of informal, essayistic conversations in The Scholar's Art holds interest for everyone, from newcomers to those who have long been following and learning from his work, with illumination and gratitude." - Susan J. Wolfson, Princeton University"

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • The Scholars Art Literary Studies in a Managed

    The University of Chicago Press The Scholars Art Literary Studies in a Managed

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor Jerome McGann, the purpose of scholarship is to preserve and pass on cultural heritage, a feat accomplished through discussion among scholars and interested nonspecialists. In this collection of thirteen essays, McGann both addresses and exemplifies that discussion and the vocation it supports.Trade Review"Jerome McGann is an internationally influential critic, with a long career not only of scholarly labor but of setting the agenda for critical adventures, theoretical reflection, and editorial precision, low-tech and hi-tech. The engaging array of informal, essayistic conversations in The Scholar's Art holds interest for everyone, from newcomers to those who have long been following and learning from his work, with illumination and gratitude." - Susan J. Wolfson, Princeton University"

    15 in stock

    £26.60

  • Inwardness  Theatre in the English Renaissance

    University of Chicago Press Inwardness Theatre in the English Renaissance

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis text explores the perceived discrepancy between outward appearance and inward disposition which, it argues, influenced the work of many English Renaissance dramatists and poets. The author examines various connections between religious, legal, sexual and theatrical ideas of inward truth.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1: Introduction: Inwardness and Spectatorship 2: Machiavels and Family Men 3: Heretical Conscience and Theatrical Rhetoric: The Case of Christopher Marlowe 4: Proof and Consequences: Othello and the Crime of Intention 5: Prosecution and Sexual Secrecy: Jonson and Shakespeare 6: A Womb of His Own: Male Renaissance Poets in the Female Body 7: Conclusion Index

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance

    University of Chicago Press Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis text explores the perceived discrepancy between outward appearance and inward disposition which, it argues, influenced the work of many English Renaissance dramatists and poets. The author examines various connections between religious, legal, sexual and theatrical ideas of inward truth.

    15 in stock

    £24.70

  • Salome and the Dance of Writing

    The University of Chicago Press Salome and the Dance of Writing

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisHow does literature imagine its own powers of representation? Françoise Meltzer attempts to answer this question by looking at how the portraitthe painted portrait, framedappears in various literary texts. Alien to the verbal system of the text yet mimetic of the gesture of writing, the textual portrait becomes a telling measure of literature's views on itself, on the politics of representation, and on the power of writing. Meltzer'sreadings of textual portraitsin the Gospel writers and Huysmans,Virgil and Stendhal, the Old Testament and Apuleius, Hawthorne and Poe, Kafka and Rousseau, Walter Scott and Mme de Lafayettereveal an interplay of control and subversion: writing attempts to veil the visual and to erase the sensual in favor of meaning, while portraiture, with its claims to bringing the natural object to life, resists and eludes such control. Meltzer shows how this tension is indicative of a politics of repression and subversion intrinsic to the very act of representation. Throughout, she raises and illuminates fascinating issues: about the relation of flattery to caricature, the nature of the uncanny, the relation ofrepresentation to memory and history, the narcissistic character of representation, and the interdependency of representation and power. Writing, thinking, speaking, dreaming, actingthe extent to which these are all controlled by representation must, Meltzer concludes, become consciously unconscious. In the textualportrait, she locates the moment when this essential process is both revealed and repressed.

    15 in stock

    £34.20

  • The Surreptitious Speech  Presence Africaine and

    The University of Chicago Press The Surreptitious Speech Presence Africaine and

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisDistinguished scholar V. Y. Mudimbe assembles a lively tribute to Presence Africaine, the landmark African studies journal begun in 1947 Paris. While it celebrates the project's forty-year history, The Surreptitious Speech does not naively canonize the journal but rather offers a vibrant discussion and critical reading of its context, characteristics, and significance.

    15 in stock

    £38.00

  • Paper Minds  Literature and the Ecology of

    The University of Chicago Press Paper Minds Literature and the Ecology of

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisA study of the knowledge we can glean about perception and consciousness through the study of literature.Trade Review"In this series of elegantly connected essays, Jonathan Kramnick excavates a kinetic, haptic, and immersive alternative to contemplative aesthetics in the eighteenth century and follows its ramifications into contemporary debates about theory of mind. How does free indirect discourse offer its own way of working through the 'hard problem' of consciousness? What can apostrophe teach us about the supposed divide between perceiving the world and acting in it? Moving deftly from locodescriptive poetry and common sense philosophy to novels about cognitive science, these astute and sometimes polemical writings broaden our understanding of what an aesthetics and ethics of everyday dwelling might be and of how literary forms provide unique insight on theories of perception."--Sianne Ngai, University of Chicago "Paper Minds is beautifully written in elegant, witty prose with maximum clarity. It makes original contributions to at least three fields: cognitive literary criticism, eighteenth-century British studies, and the study of contemporary literature. This is a book to read and re-read carefully, and to feature prominently in any discussion concerning the contributions and merits of a cognitive approach to literature."--Alan Richardson, Boston College, author of The Neural Sublime "The essays assembled here are distinguished by a supple, eloquent prose and by their humane tone. They offer an eye-opening picture of how, from the eighteenth century onward, a particular set of literary forms has made it possible to set down 'perceptual or emotional or cognitive experience on the page.' Paper Minds is a landmark book both for scholars of eighteenth-century literary studies and for scholars from other periods working at the intersection between literary analysis and cognitive science."--Deidre Shauna Lynch, Harvard University "Paper Minds places literary study proudly in the company of other university disciplines, both in theory and in practice. Kramnick's philosophic concerns and his precision about cognition drive brilliant readings that range from all but forgotten landscape poems, to old novels as obscure as The Blazing World or as familiar as Robinson Crusoe, to prize-winning novelists of the present century. He probes the mystery of conscious experience with revelatory lucidity. His aesthetics of craft and the everyday--if perhaps tinged with urban nostalgia--precisely carve out an alternative to the classic aesthetics of distance."--John Bender, Stanford University

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Paper Minds Literature and the Ecology of

    The University of Chicago Press Paper Minds Literature and the Ecology of

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisA study of the knowledge we can glean about perception and consciousness through the study of literature.Trade Review"In this series of elegantly connected essays, Jonathan Kramnick excavates a kinetic, haptic, and immersive alternative to contemplative aesthetics in the eighteenth century and follows its ramifications into contemporary debates about theory of mind. How does free indirect discourse offer its own way of working through the 'hard problem' of consciousness? What can apostrophe teach us about the supposed divide between perceiving the world and acting in it? Moving deftly from locodescriptive poetry and common sense philosophy to novels about cognitive science, these astute and sometimes polemical writings broaden our understanding of what an aesthetics and ethics of everyday dwelling might be and of how literary forms provide unique insight on theories of perception."--Sianne Ngai, University of Chicago "Paper Minds is beautifully written in elegant, witty prose with maximum clarity. It makes original contributions to at least three fields: cognitive literary criticism, eighteenth-century British studies, and the study of contemporary literature. This is a book to read and re-read carefully, and to feature prominently in any discussion concerning the contributions and merits of a cognitive approach to literature."--Alan Richardson, Boston College, author of The Neural Sublime "The essays assembled here are distinguished by a supple, eloquent prose and by their humane tone. They offer an eye-opening picture of how, from the eighteenth century onward, a particular set of literary forms has made it possible to set down 'perceptual or emotional or cognitive experience on the page.' Paper Minds is a landmark book both for scholars of eighteenth-century literary studies and for scholars from other periods working at the intersection between literary analysis and cognitive science."--Deidre Shauna Lynch, Harvard University "Paper Minds places literary study proudly in the company of other university disciplines, both in theory and in practice. Kramnick's philosophic concerns and his precision about cognition drive brilliant readings that range from all but forgotten landscape poems, to old novels as obscure as The Blazing World or as familiar as Robinson Crusoe, to prize-winning novelists of the present century. He probes the mystery of conscious experience with revelatory lucidity. His aesthetics of craft and the everyday--if perhaps tinged with urban nostalgia--precisely carve out an alternative to the classic aesthetics of distance."--John Bender, Stanford University

    15 in stock

    £22.80

  • Mathematics and Humor

    The University of Chicago Press Mathematics and Humor

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    15 in stock

    £17.68

  • Making Sense of Literature

    The University of Chicago Press Making Sense of Literature

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this commonsense approach to the fundamental issues involved in understanding and evaluating literary works, John Reichert examines the method and structure of rational critical argument and its relationship to the nature of reading. With clarity and vigor, he shows how we can cut through competing critical languages to sort right readings from wrong ones, better from worse. His incisive analyses are augmented by illustrations from distinguished critics writing about major literary works. Reichert considers criticism broadly as the imparting of one's understanding of a poem or play or novel to another reader. When the rhetorical function of critical language is recognized, seemingly distinct approaches to literature can be seen as different though often compatible means to a single end. He contends that the critic's job is not to report a personal response but to describe how a readerany readerought to respond to a particular work. This necessitates postulating the author's intentio

    10 in stock

    £33.30

  • Altered Reading  Levinas  Literature Levinas and

    The University of Chicago Press Altered Reading Levinas Literature Levinas and

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisExamining Levinas's texts and readings by Derrida, Blanchot, and Bataille, this text shows how the thread of the literary leads to the internal tensions of Levinas's ethical discourse. It provides a critical account of Levinas's early and mature philosophy as well as later transitional essays.

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Altered Reading  Levinas and Literature

    The University of Chicago Press Altered Reading Levinas and Literature

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisExamining Levinas's texts and readings by Derrida, Blanchot, and Bataille, this text shows how the thread of the literary leads to the internal tensions of Levinas's ethical discourse. It provides a critical account of Levinas's early and mature philosophy as well as later transitional essays.

    15 in stock

    £26.60

  • What Happens in Literature A Guide to Poetry

    The University of Chicago Press What Happens in Literature A Guide to Poetry

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this text, the author lays out the basics that can help us become sharper, more proficient readers. Looking at poems, novels and plays, this critical guide raises questions and offers suggestions designed to make us enjoy more fully what we are reading.

    10 in stock

    £29.38

  • The Courtesy Phoenix Poets

    The University of Chicago Press The Courtesy Phoenix Poets

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this, his first book, Alan Shapiro vividly recreates some of the more memorable and poignant moments from his Jewish-American childhood, and in the process reveals his compassionate interest in the forgotten, the alienated, and the infirm. The Courtesy is an intelligent, reflective examination of the poet's own psychological history. The Courtesy is really an admirable book: it shows up the unreality of a lot of the other poetry one reads, dealing honestly and with that perversity which is a sign of thoughfulness, with the slight but heavy matter of our everyday defeats.--Michael Hoffman, Poetry Nation Review

    15 in stock

    £24.70

  • Academic Postmodern  the Rule of Literature  A

    The University of Chicago Press Academic Postmodern the Rule of Literature A

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis critique of the postmodern turn discusses the distinctive aspects of postmodern scholarship: the pervasiveness of the literary and the flight from grand theory to local knowledge. Defining features of postmodern thought are also discussed here such as storytelling and localism.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Academic Postmodern? 1: The Return of the Storyteller and the Circulation of "Literature" 2: Anecdotes and Conversations: The Method of Postmodernity 3: Speaking Personally: The Culture of Autobiography in the Postmodern 4: Feminisms and Feminizations in the Postmodern 5: Localism, Local Knowledge, and Literary Criticism 6: Romanticism and Localism 7: The Urge for Solutions and the Relief of Fiction Bibliography Index

    10 in stock

    £80.00

  • Academic Postmodern  the Rule of Literature  A

    The University of Chicago Press Academic Postmodern the Rule of Literature A

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis critique of the postmodern turn discusses the distinctive aspects of postmodern scholarship: the pervasiveness of the literary and the flight from grand theory to local knowledge. Defining features of postmodern thought are also discussed here such as storytelling and localism.

    10 in stock

    £30.18

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