Literature as communication : the foundations of mediating criticism / Roger D. Sell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sell, Roger D.

Series:

Pragmatics & beyond ; new ser. 78.

Pragmatics & beyond ; new ser. 78

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criticism.

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Pragmatics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (366 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers foundations for a literary criticism which seeks to mediate between writers and readers belonging to different historical periods or social groupings. This makes it, among other things, a timely intervention in the postmodern "culture wars", though the theory put forward will be of interest not only to students of literature and culture, but also to linguists. Sell describes communication in general as strongly interactive, as very much affected by the disparate situationalities of "sending" and "receiving", yet as by no means completely determined by them. Seen this way, men and women are both social beings and individuals, capable of empathizing with sociohistorical formations which are alien to them, sometimes even to the extent of changing their own life-world. By treating literary activity as communicational in this same dynamic sense, Sell radically modifies the main paradigms of twentieth-century literary theory, casting much new light on questions of genre, interpretation, affect and ethics.

Contents:

LITERATURE AS COMMUNICATION

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Dedication

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. A-Historical De-Humanization

Chapter 3. The Historically Human

Chapter 4. Literature as Communication

Chapter 5. Interactive Consequences

Chapter 6. Mediating Criticism

Glossary

Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index

PRAGMATICS AND BEYOND NEW SERIES.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-332) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612163166

9781282163164

1282163167

9789027298966

9027298963

OCLC:

70769168