Jorge Luis Borges and His Predecessors, Or, Notes Towards a Materialist History of Linguistic Idealism


Book Description

Read locates both the work of Jorge Luis Borges and Western ideas on language in their historical context. He reviews the theoretically diverse critical approaches to Borges's work, including both those that collude with the texts and others that are hostile to the Argentinian writer, and argues that all are inadequate for understanding Borges. He maintains that the modern subject is now characterized by narcissism associated with philosophical skepticism.




Literary Philosophers


Book Description

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Modern Myths


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The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne


Book Description

Best known today for the innovative satire and experimental narrative of Tristram Shandy (1759–67), Laurence Sterne was no less famous in his time for A Sentimental Journey (1768) and for his controversial sermons. Sterne spent much of his life as an obscure clergyman in rural Yorkshire. But he brilliantly exploited the sensation achieved with the first instalment of Tristram Shandy to become, by his death in 1768, a fashionable celebrity across Europe. In this Companion, specially commissioned essays by leading scholars provide an authoritative and accessible guide to Sterne's writings in their historical and cultural context. Exploring key issues in his work, including sentimentalism, national identity, gender, print culture and visual culture, as well as his subsequent influence on a range of important literary movements and modes, the book offers a comprehensive new account of Sterne's life and work.




Jorge Luis Borges and His Predecessors, Or, Notes Towards a Materialist History of Linguistic Idealism


Book Description

Read locates both the work of Jorge Luis Borges and Western ideas on language in their historical context. He reviews the theoretically diverse critical approaches to Borges's work, including both those that collude with the texts and others that are hostile to the Argentinian writer, and argues that all are inadequate for understanding Borges. He maintains that the modern subject is now characterized by narcissism associated with philosophical skepticism.







The Poetics of Inconstancy


Book Description

The transformation of Late Petrarchism from earlier stages reflects a profound shift in cultural values--a 'crisis of the Renaissance' that generated new perspectives in poetic theory and practice. Broadly, this book identifies a distinctive 'poetics of inconstancy' that came to the fore at the end of the sixteenth century and pervaded the love verse of the age. At the same time, as a study based on the inductive method, the book takes as its point of departure a single poet: Etienne Durand. Because of his frequently anthologized 'Stances a l'Inconstance,' Durand is often singled out as 'the poet of inconstancy.' This study, however, identifies the theme of universal change as a hallmark of Durand's contemporaries as well--a signal of a stylistic revolution that heralded the end of Renaissance verse.




Text as Topos in Religious Literature of the Spanish Golden Age


Book Description

The central component of this study is an index of the numerous motifs through which topoi of the text as symbol are articulated in the religious poetry, sermons, and sacramental plays of Golden Age Spain. Paired with the index is an anthology of the texts on which the book is based. In her introduction, Louise Salstad discusses the transmission and transformation of the topoi as they appear in the Old and New Testaments, classical literature, church writings, and medieval texts, and she considers the influence of the contemporary milieu on the shaping of these motifs. The book also includes an explanatory introduction to the index, biographical notes on authors, a chronology of works, a bibliography, and key word indexes of motifs in English and Spanish. The most extensive investigation of specific topoi undertaken in Spanish studies, this book will also be of interest to art historians and cultural historians whose focus is theology, the history of spirituality, or the history of the book.




20th Century


Book Description