Synopses & Reviews
Profoundly searching, yet written with grace and lucidity. A distinguished historian and critic illuminates and answers one of the major problems of literary study in a work that will become and remain a classic. -- W. Jackson Bate.
Perkins writes clearly and concisely. Like Ren? Wellek and M. H. Abrams, he has an admirable gift for making clear the underlying assumptions of many different writers. -- Comparative Literature.
Synopsis
Is Literary History Possible? is a landmark study of the thinking underlying recent theory about literary history. Through analysis of particular literary histories -- most of them contemporary works -- Perkins elaborates on two fundamental problems that arise in the writing of literary history: the contradictions inherent in organizing, structuring, and presenting the subject; and the always unsuccessful attempt of literary histories to explain the development of the literature they describe.