Reading the absurd / Joanna Gavins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gavins, Joanna, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Absurd (Philosophy) in literature.

Physical Description:

viii, 181 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2013]

Summary:

What is the literary absurd? What are its key textual features? How can it be analysed? How do different readers respond to absurdist literature? Taking the theories and methodologies of stylistics as its underlying analytical framework, Reading the Absurd tackles each of those questions. Selected key works in English literature are examined in depth to reveal significant aspects of absurd style. Its analytical approach combines stylistic inquiry with a cognitive perspective on language, literature and reading which sheds new light on the human experience of literary reading. By exploring the literary absurd as a linguistic and experiential phenomenon, while at the same time reflecting upon its essential historical and cultural situation, Joanna Gavins brings a new perspective to the absurd aesthetic. It is essential reading for advanced students and scholars in cognitive poetics, stylistics, English literature and linguistics. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Literary Absurd 1

2 Identifying the Absurd 10

3 Absurd Minds 58

4 Absurd Fictions 97

5 Absurd Verses 135.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780748669264

0748669264

9780748670017

0748670017

OCLC:

855351815