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Q&A | May 20, 2013
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More copies of this ISBNOther titles in the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures series:
The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)by Frank Kermode
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Frank Kermode has long held a distinctive place among modern critics. He brings to the study of literature a fine and fresh critical intelligence that is always richly suggestive, never modish. He offers here an inquiry--elegant in conception and style--into the art of interpretation. His subject quite simply is meanings; how they are revealed and how they are concealed.
Drawing on the venerable tradition of biblical interpretation, Mr. Kermode examines some enigmatic passages and episodes in the gospels. From his reading come ideas about what makes interpretation possible--and often impossible. He considers ways in which narratives acquire opacity, and he asks whether there are methods of distinguishing all possible meaning from a central meaning which gives the story its structure. He raises questions concerning the interpretation of single texts in relation to their context in a writer's work and a tradition; considers the special interpretative problems of historical narration; and tries to relate the activities of the interpreter to interpretation more broadly conceived as a means of living in the world. While discussing the gospels, Mr. Kermode touches upon such literary works as Kafka's parables, Joyce's Ulysses, Henry James's novels, and Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49. By showing the relationships between religious interpretation and literary criticism, he has enhanced both fields. Review:"Despite the title, the Charles Eliot Norton lectures delivered at Harvard in 197778 concern a reading of Mark's Gospel, and not narrative in any general sense. Beyond the misleading, if provocative, title, then, it is disappointing to see Kermode lavish deference on English Biblical scholars whilst he does not spare the European philosophers on whose reinterpretation of hermeneutics he entirely depends for his teasing condescension; it suggests, after all, a narrow ethnocentricism of which we know him to be innocent. Yet Kermode's oratory is not without a certain mysterious radiance for all that." Reviewed by Karen Kevorkian, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
About the AuthorFrank Kermode is Julian Clarence Levi Professor of English Literature, Columbia University, and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Table of ContentsI. Carnal and Spiritual Senses
II. Hoti's Business: Why Are Narratives Obscure? III. The Man in the Macintosh, The Boy in the Shirt IV. Necessities of Upspringing V. What Precisely Are the Facts? VI. The Unfollowable World Notes What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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