Why study literature? / edited by Jan Alber ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Alber, Jan, 1973-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and society.

Literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Literature.

Literature--Study and teaching.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (258 p.)

Place of Publication:

Aarhus : Aarhus University Press ; Bristol, CT : distributed by ISBC, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The book presents new ways of thinking about the historical, epistemological and institutional role of literature. It aims at providing a theoretically well-founded basis for what might otherwise be considered a relatively unfounded historical fact, i.e. the fact that the teaching of literature holds a privileged position in many educational institutions. The collection brings together theoretical studies and critical analyses of literature as a medium among other media. The essays focus on the consequences and values of reading and studying literature. The contributors take their point of.

Contents:

Cover; Title page; Colophon; Contents; Introduction; Why Study Literature?; The editors; Reframing Literature; Why Literature?; Some possible answers to the question "Why Study Literature?"; Mediality; Locality & Temporality; Humanity; References; MEDIALITY; Meaning as Spectacle: Verbal Art in the Digital Age; Marie-Laure Ryan; The spectacularization of language; A technological typology of texts; Category 1: Naturally generated linear texts for print; Category 2: Naturally generated linear texts presented on the computer screen; Category 3: Naturally generated database texts for print

Category 4: Naturally generated database texts performed on the computer Category 5: Computer generated texts for print; Category 6: Texts generated and presented by computer; Dysfunctional language; Return to functionality; Bi-medial texts; Networking; Conclusion; References; A Defence of (the Study of) Literature; or: Why (the Study of) Literature Cannot Be Replaced by Cultural Studies and Film (Studies); Werner Wolf; Literature and the study of literature

increasingly outmoded activities?; 'Literature' in today's academic studies

Major general functions of literature, and why literary studies cannot be replaced by Cultural Studies Qualities and functions specific to literature, or what might happen if Fahrenheit 451 became reality?; Conclusion: Literature as an irreplaceable medium and literary studies as an equally irreplaceable research and educational institution?; References; Mediality and Literature; Literature versus literature; Morten Kyndrup; The Centrifugality of Literary Studies; What is Literature?; Time; Space; Sign System; Fictionality; Enunciation; Literature's Mediality; Why Study Intermediality?

Literary Studies in Interaction Anne-Marie Mai; Modern literary values and the literary opposition; The highly diverse literary landscape; Text Rain

an example; Interdisciplinary collaboration; Creative reading and writing; References; HUMANITY; On the Differences between Reading and Studying Literature; Magnus Persson; Lay reading and professional reading; Linguistic competence and literary competence; Bridging the divide

towards a third way of reading; References; Aesthetics and the New Ethics:; Theorizing the Novel in the Twenty-First Century; Dorothy J. Hale; References

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

87-7124-249-X

OCLC:

818118043