Synopses & Reviews
Throughout the twentieth century, the epistemological status of literature, the problem of language's claim to true representation, has challenged our received notions of ontology and being itself. In Singularities, Thomas Pepper addresses the relationship among text, philosopical value and critical difficulty through a rich sequence of nuanced close readings of especially demanding texts. Singularities addresses key moments in the work of seminal twentieth-century theorists, and by offering a critique of the very process of thematic reading, questions the whole direction of contemporary theory through a series of readings of sustained critical power.
Table of Contents
Preface: truth or method; Introduction: Ode to X, or the essay as monstrosity; 1. Guilt by (un) free association: Adorno on Romance et al., with some notes on the Schlock experience; 2. Anamorphoses of grammar: Derrida on Heidegger; 3. Absolute constructions, an essay at Paul de Man; 4. Because the nights: Blanchotsâs Celui qui ne mâaccompagnait pas; 5. Afterword: er, or borrowing from Peter to pay Paul: further notes on Celanâs translation of Shakespeareâs Sonnet 105.