Synopses & Reviews
The much-heralded War on Poverty has failed. The number of children living in poverty is steadily on the rise and an increasingly destructive underclass brutalizes urban neighborhoods. America's patience with the poor seems to have run out: even cities that have traditionally been havens for the homeless are arresting, harassing, and expelling their street people.
In this timely work, William Kelso analyzes how the persistence of poverty has resulted in a reversal of liberal and conservative positions during the last thirty years. While liberals in the 1960s hoped to eliminate the causes of poverty, today they increasingly seem resigned to merely treating its effects. The original liberal objective of giving the poor a helping hand by promoting equal opportunity has given way to a new agenda of entitlements and equal results. In contrast, conservatives who once suggested that trying to eliminate poverty was futile, now seek ways to eradicate the actual causes of poverty.
Poverty and the Underclass suggests that the arguments of both the left and right are misguided and offers new explanations for the persistence of poverty. Looking beyond the codewords that have come to obscure the debateunderclass, family values, the culture of poverty,Kelso emphasizes that poverty is not a monolithic condition, but a vast and multidimensional problem.
During his Presidential campaign, Bill Clinton called for an overhaul of the welfare system and spoke of a new covenant to unite both the left and right in developing a common agenda for fighting poverty. In this urgent, landmark work, William Kelso merges conservative, radical, and liberal ideals to suggest how the intractable problem of poverty may be solved at long last by implementing the principles of this new covenant.
Review
"Literary Meaning is an erudite and well-written book. It clearly presents the arguments of an array of thinkers, whose work is seen in terms of the schools to which they appeal. Rather than dismiss current theory, Harris traces it to its crucial flaws."
"In recent years, many observers have noted the thinness and monotony of poststructuralist dogma. No one, however, has done a more assiduous job of pushing intellectual debris out of the way that Wendell Harris in Literary Meaning. This book is at once plain and sophisticated, hard-hitting and constructive. How different our field would be if Harris were required reading for graduate students!"
Review
"An excellent introduction to the debate about poverty in America. He emphasizes how little we still know about this critical problem. Poverty in the land of plenty remains a mystery."-Lawrence M. Mead,author of The New Politics of Poverty
Review
"A thoughtful analysis of one of America's most vexing social problems. Kelso eschews the platitudes of both left and right to examine the intractable nature of poverty and its diverse causes. He is especially insightful in his dissection of the role culture plays in povertyand for the concern government should have for the character of its citizens."-Linda Chavez,author of Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation
Review
"Kelso's book provides an excellent overview of poverty and the underclass in American society, along with perceptive observations about how contemporary views of the poor are changing."-Kenrick S. Thompson,Professor of Sociology, Northern Michigan University
Synopsis
Literary theory, according to Wendell Harris, has over the last twenty-five years become increasingly characterized by illogical arguments, an esoteric vocabulary, and gnomic references to what various authority figures are presumed to have demonstrated. Arcane modes of argument and unargued assumptions leave the reader of contemporary theorists frustrated; little of the resulting criticism entices the reader to seek out the literary work itself.
Harris argues that regardless of the specifics of individual theories, the central struggle is between traditional hermeneutics, in which the interpretation of the author's intended meaning is the necessary first step in any response to a text, and the more recent hermeticism, which seeks to deny the relevance of intention, the possibility of determinate meaning, and the reference of language to any reality beyond itself.
With wit, insight, and analytical precision, Harris critiques the misunderstanding of scientific method spawned by the failure of structuralism, the absolutism of poststructuralism, and the confusions over contextualism and historicism. He concludes with an analysis of the hollowness of the current model of professionalism in literature departments.
Synopsis
Literary theory, according to Wendell Harris, has over the last twenty-five years become increasingly characterized by illogical arguments, an esoteric vocabulary, and gnomic references to what various authority figures are presumed to have demonstrated. Arcane modes of argument and unargued assumptions leave the reader of contemporary theorists frustrated; little of the resulting criticism entices the reader to seek out the literary work itself.
Harris argues that regardless of the specifics of individual theories, the central struggle is between traditional hermeneutics, in which the interpretation of the author's intended meaning is the necessary first step in any response to a text, and the more recent hermeticism, which seeks to deny the relevance of intention, the possibility of determinate meaning, and the reference of language to any reality beyond itself.
With wit, insight, and analytical precision, Harris critiques the misunderstanding of scientific method spawned by the failure of structuralism, the absolutism of poststructuralism, and the confusions over contextualism and historicism. He concludes with an analysis of the hollowness of the current model of professionalism in literature departments.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 224-234) and indexes.
About the Author
Wendell V. Harris is Professor of English and former department head at The Pennsylvania State University. His most recent books are Interpretive Acts: In Search of Meaning (1988) and Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory (1992).