Description
Book SynopsisCaruth thus reveals, in each of these authors, a tension between the abstraction of a conceptual language freed from reference and the compelling referential resistance of particular stories to abstraction.
Trade ReviewPresumably one of the last publications we shall receive that will be able to acknowledge the personal influence of Paul de Man's teaching... Exciting and tenacious. -- John Baker Comparative Literature Studies 1994 Her aim is nothing less than to rethink the place of experience in the texts which constitute our transcendental and Romantic self-understanding. Caruth's reexamination of the enigma of experience proceeds through painstakingly close readings of some major texts of our modernity. -- Heesok Chang Wordsworth Circle 1994 A very thoughtful and valuable contribution to understanding empiricism's critical resistance to its own theory. Choice 1991 Caruth's absorbing book is powerful enough to challenge and engage one's own predispositions, and to continue very lively debates. -- Keith Hanley Modern Language Review Reanimates this region of the critical terrain... Caruth's book belongs to that special category of works in literary theory that are not only intellectually stimulating but affectively moving. Modern Language Notes Its reminder of a critical style now apparently sidelined by various modes of historicist inquiry could not be timelier. Studies in English Literature 2010
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgements
1. The Face of Experience
2. Past Recognition: Narrative Origins in Wordsworth and Freud
3. The Force of Example: Kant's Symbols
4. Signs of Love
Conclusion: Mourning Experience
Notes
Index
