Over the last twenty years, the humanities and social sciences have become peculiarly preoccupied with the limitations of language--especially what language cannot do. Rather than ask whether communication is possible, this study explores how it occurs. Drawing on a variety of fields that have contributed to literary theory--including discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, philosophy of language, and rhetorical theory--Harris defines the goal of interpretation as uncovering an author's intended meaning, and considers criticism in terms of the question "What does it mean that the author meant...
Over the last twenty years, the humanities and social sciences have become peculiarly preoccupied with the limitations of language--especially what la...
In this collection of essays, an international group of renowned scholars attempt to establish the theoretical basis for studying the ancient and medieval history of the Mediterranean Sea and the lands around it. In so doing they range far afield to other Mediterraneans, real and imaginary, as distant as Brazil and Japan. Their work is an essential tool for understanding the Mediterranean, pre-modern and modern alike. It speaks to ancient and medieval historians, to archaeologists, anthropologists and all historians with environmental interests, and not least to classicists.
In this collection of essays, an international group of renowned scholars attempt to establish the theoretical basis for studying the ancient and medi...
The essays in Part I of Beyond Poststructuralism seek to demonstrate fallacies of structuralist and poststructuralist thought that remain potent even though the theoretical structures that led to their enunciation have lost much of their original influence. These fallacies include the idea that one must avoid the consideration of authorial intention; that meanings are undecidable; that there is no justification for seeking unity in a text; that all hierarchies of value are reversible; that history is no more than an open contest among competing narrative constructions; and that...
The essays in Part I of Beyond Poststructuralism seek to demonstrate fallacies of structuralist and poststructuralist thought that remain ...
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...
Literary theory, according to Wendell Harris, has over the last twenty-five years become increasingly characterized by illogical arguments, an esot...
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...
Literary theory, according to Wendell Harris, has over the last twenty-five years become increasingly characterized by illogical arguments, an esot...
Today's student of literature is faced with an overwhelming variety of critical approaches. The need to evaluate their usefulness in furthering our understanding of literature is therefore a growing concern. In Literary Meaning, Wendell V. Harris explores the fallacies behind the fashionable hermeticism that insists that the meaning of a text is indeterminate and divides language from any reality beyond itself. Harris then puts forward a powerful case for the return to hermeneutics, in which an understanding of the author's intended meaning is the first step in reading, and at the same time...
Today's student of literature is faced with an overwhelming variety of critical approaches. The need to evaluate their usefulness in furthering our un...
Not a general dictionary of literary terms, the "Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory" treats seventy fundamental and overarching concepts from allegory and allusion to tragedy and unity. By concepts is meant broad terms that designate modes of thought about, approaches to, or major classifications of literature that are of central importance to the history or present pursuit of literary criticism and commentary. Particular attention has been given to distinguishing the different senses in which a term has been used or is presently used, to noting major questions that...
Not a general dictionary of literary terms, the "Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory" treats seventy fundamental and overarchin...
