Acts of naming : the family plot in fiction / Michael Ragussis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ragussis, Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Names, Personal, in literature.

Families in literature.

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Plots (Drama, novel, etc.).

Physical Description:

x, 268 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1986.

Summary:

In this book, the author provides the first comprehensive study of names and naming in fiction, rereading the novelistic tradition to show that acts of naming--bestowing, revealing, or earning a name; taking away, hiding, or prohibiting a name; slandering, protecting, or serving a name--lie at the center of fictional plots from the 18th century to the present.

Contents:

Introduction: In the Name of the Child 3

Part 1 The Naming Plots of Fiction

1 Clarissa, or the Name Lost 19

2 Oliver Twist, or the Name Found 35

3 Pierre, or the American Myth of the Name Transcended 48

Part 2 Fiction and Family Discourse

4 The Scarlet Letter 65

"The guilty name" 66

On the border in fiction 76

5 Bleak House 87

"Kindred mystery" 88

"No one" and "Every one" in fiction 97

6 The Mill on the Floss 110

The education of father and son 111

"Living twice over" in fiction 122

7 Tess of the d'Urbervilles 135

"In the name of the Father" 138

"In the name of our love" 146

Coda: Confession in fiction 154

Part 3 Fiction and the Traditions of Naming

8 Lolita 165

The science of classification 168

Etymology 177

Allegory, meta-allegory, and parody 182

The "science of pleasure" in Fanny Hill 190

Proust and the erotics of naming 198

Naming as ordinary magic 215

The novel as naming plot 229.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0195040708

OCLC:

13093752