Redeeming words and the promise of happiness : a critical theory approach to Wallace Stevens and Vladamir Nabokov / David Kleinberg-Levin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kleinberg-Levin, David Michael, 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authors, American--20th century--History and criticism.

Authors, American.

Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955--Criticism and interpretation.

Stevens, Wallace.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977--Criticism and interpretation.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers a philosophical reflection on the nature of language by reading some exemplary works of literature. Drawing on the thought of philosophers-especially Plato, Kant, Hegel, Emerson, Benjamin, Adorno, Heidegger and Wittgenstein, the author argues that language is the bearer of a utopian or messianic promise of happiness, and that by redeeming the revelatory power of words, the two writers in this study are contributing to the redemption of the promise of happiness in a world of reconciled antagonisms and contradictions. </sp

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgements; Prologue; Part I: Between Wild Sense and Plain Sense: The Language of Truth in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens; 1 Truth; 2 Reason's Folly; 3 The Realism of the Imagination; 4 Word-Play: Language on Holiday; 5 Redemption?; Part II: Facing the Surface: Nabokov After Mallarmé; 6 Modernism; 7 Mischievous Predecessors; 8 Transparencies and Metamorphoses: Nabokov's Language Games; 9 When the Promise of Happiness Appears: Redeeming the Dust on the Surface; 10 Paradise of Memory and Imagination; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

1-283-94252-6

0-7391-7752-4

OCLC:

826659754