Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A Stanford University Press classic.
Synopsis
This book argues that literature can be definedpragmatist and historicist arguments notwithstandingand that in its definition its unique value can be discovered. The author identifies literature ontologically as a sign of the preconceptual, as the "ostensive moment" that discloses neither the purpose nor the structure of existence but existence itself, revealed in its nonhuman register.
Synopsis
Situating his argument amid theoretical debates inspired by deconstruction, the New Historicism, and neopragmatism, the author attempts to provide a new definition of the value of literature.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-246) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Part I. Ostension: 1. Non-construction: history, structure, and the ostensive movement in literature; 2. One last theme: literature as insignificance; 3. The hum of literature: ostension in language; 4. The torturer's horse: what poems see in pictures; Part II. Non-Epiphany: 5. Clearings in the way: non-epiphany in Wordsworth; 6. Nil reconsidered: criticism, actuality, and 'To Autumn'; 7. Possession of the sublime, repression of insignificance; Part III. Return of the Same: 8. The absent dead: Wordsworth, Byron, and the epitaph; 9. Disposing of the body: the common sense of the romantic moment of dying; Conclusion; The ethics of suspending knowledge.