Synopses & Reviews
In his latest book, Marshall Gregory begins with the premise that our lives are saturated with stories, ranging from magazines, books, films, television, and blogs to the words spoken by politicians, pastors, and teachers. He then explores the ethical implication of this nearly universal human obsession with narratives. Through careful readings of Katherine Anne Porter's "The Grave," Thurber's "The Catbird Seat," as well as David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights, Gregory asks (and answers) the question: How do the stories we absorb in our daily lives influence the kinds of persons we turn out to be?
"Shaped by Stories weaves its own compelling story about the pervasive ethical effects of reading narrative, with Marshall Gregory serving as a highly engaging and ethically admirable narrator--a very model of good company." --James Phelan, Distinguished University Professor of English, Ohio State University
"Marshall Gregory's Shaped by Stories brings ethical criticism to the level of felt experience. Witty and passionate, full of personal reflections and sharp examples, this book will help anyone who has been drawn to the mysterious power of stories to think more carefully about the connections between narrative art and human ethos. Gregory reminds us that the urgency of our need for stories is tied permanently to the need to exercise judgment, belief, and empathy in the process of becoming who we are." --Annette Federico, James Madison University
"From a lifetime of reflecting on the ethics of fiction, Marshall Gregory has given us an elegant analysis of the power of stories to instruct and delight. No one interested in storytelling will want to be without this incisive guide to both the myriad ways that stories shape our lives and the strategies writers use to affect our responses. Both the theoretical and practical halves of Shaped by Stories have clarity and eloquence." --Robert D. Denham, Fishwick Professor of English, Emeritus, Roanoke College
Review
"Gregory's overarching thesis is 'that stories are an important component of the ethical development that all human beings undergo because stories are an important component of every human being's education about the world.' . . . [an] elegantly written, amiable, argot-free study. Gregory fills the book with relevant personal examples and draws on a lifetime of engagement with narratives and thoughtful, down-to-earth considerations of their impact. A generous works cited makes it an exceptionally useful resource. . . . This is a book every serious reader should investigate and all libraries should own. Essential." --Choice
Review
“Some of the most important literary theory of this century.”—College English
Synopsis
The Russian formalists emerged from the Russian Revolution with ideas about the independence of literature. They enjoyed that independence until Stalin shut them down. By then, however, they had produced essays that remain among the best defenses ever written for both literature and its theory.
Included here are four essays representing key points in the formalists short history. Victor Shklovskys pioneering “Art as Technique” (1917) defines the literary as a way to make us see familiar things as if for the first time. His 1921 essay on Tristram Shandy makes that eccentric novel the centerpiece for a theory of narrative. A section from Boris Tomashevskys “Thematics” (1925) inventories the elements of stories. In “The Theory of the ‘Formal Method” (1927), Boris Eichenbaum defends Russian Formalism against various attacks. An able champion, he describes Formalisms evolution, notes its major figures and works, clears away decayed axioms, and rescues literature from “primitive historicism” and other dangers.
These essays set a course for literary studies that led to Prague structuralism, French semiotics, and postmodern poetics. Russian Formalist Criticism has been honored as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year by the American Library Association.
About the Author
Lee T. Lemon is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the author of several books, including Portraits of the Artist in Contemporary Fiction and Approaches to Literature: A Guide to Thinking and Writing. Marion J. Reis was affiliated with the Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Gary Saul Morson is the author of numerous books, including The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture and “Anna Karenina” in Our Time: Seeing More Wisely.