Literature as Communication: the foundations of mediating criticism

Roger D. SELL

ISBN 10: 9027250979 / ISBN 13: 9789027250971

Published by Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2000

About this Item

Wrappers. Spine faded. Inscribed by the author, "To Michael Holroyd with all good wishes from Roger D Sell. January 2001"; loosely inserted his presentation autograph letter signed, 2pp. 4to, Abo, 31 January 2001. Seller Inventory # 33M100653a

Bibliographic Details

Title: Literature as Communication: the foundations...

Publisher: Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Very Good

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

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.