Description
Thirteen essays from international scholars reflect on the nature of narrative, literary criticism, and history from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. For example, in one contribution, literary critic J. Hillis Miller analyzes the ways in which speech acts in general and lying in particular are inextricably bound up with death in Henry James' novel The Wings of the Dove . Other contributors include such renowned thinkers as philosopher Jacques Derrida and psychologist Cathy Caruth. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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This outstanding collection brings together essays that reflect on the nature of narrative, literary criticism, and history from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, ranging from deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and trauma theory, to narratology, technology, economics, and aesthetics. Acts of Narrative includes responses from renowned scholars across a wide range of disciplines: philosopher Jacques Derrida; the literary critic J. Hillis Miller; W. J. T. Mitchell, well-known for his reflections on the visual world; and Cathy Caruth, one of the founders of the field of trauma theory. These essays are brilliant in their readings of other texts, but are also striking in the manner in which each becomes itself a narrative performance. Moreover, what starts out as an exercise in theorizing and reading moves, more often than not, into a meditation on social and political issues crucial for our own sense of ourselves.
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