The Singularity of Literature

Attridge, Derek

ISBN 10: 0415335930 / ISBN 13: 9780415335935

Published by Routledge (edition 1), 2004

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 0415335930-7-1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Singularity of Literature
• Publisher: Routledge (edition 1)
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415335930
• ISBN 13: 9780415335935
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1.
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

Winner of the ESSE (European Society for the Study of English) Book Award for Literature 2006 

Literature and the literary have proved singularly resistant to definition. Derek Attridge argues that such resistance represents not a dead end, but a crucial starting point from which to explore anew the power and practices of Western art.
In this lively, original volume, the author:

• considers the implications of regarding the literary work as an innovative cultural event, both in its time and for later generations;
• provides a rich new vocabulary for discussions of literature, rethinking such terms as invention, singularity, otherness, alterity, performance and form;
• returns literature to the realm of ethics, and argues the ethical importance of the literary institution to a culture;
• demonstrates how a new understanding of the literary might be put to work in a 'responsible,' creative mode of reading.
• The Singularity of Literature is not only a major contribution to the theory of literature, but also a celebration of the extraordinary pleasure of the literary, for reader, writer, student or critic.

About the Author

Derek Attridge is Professor of English at the University of York and author of acclaimed works on poetry, fiction and literary theory.