A fascinating analysis of anonymous publication centuries before
the digital age Everywhere and Nowhere considers the ubiquity of
anonymity and mediation in the publication and circulation of
eighteenth-century British literature—before the Romantic
creation of the “author”—and what this means for literary
criticism. Anonymous authorship was typical of the time, yet
literary scholars and historians have been generally unable to
account for it as anything more than a footnote or
curiosity. Mark Vareschi shows the entangled relationship
between mediation and anonymity, revealing the nonhuman agency of
the printed text. Drawing richly on quantitative analysis and
robust archival work, Vareschi brings together philosophy, literary
theory, and media theory in a trenchant analysis, uncovering a
history of textual engagement and interpretation that does not
hinge on the known authorial subject. In discussing anonymous
poetry, drama, and the novel along with anonymously published
writers such as Daniel Defoe, Frances Burney, and Walter Scott, he
unveils a theory of mediation that renews broader questions about
agency and intention. Vareschi argues that textual intentionality
is a property of nonhuman, material media rather than human
subjects alone, allowing the anonymous literature of the eighteenth
century to speak to contemporary questions of meaning in the
philosophy of language. Vareschi closes by exploring dubious claims
about the death of anonymity and the reexplosion of anonymity with
the coming of the digital. Ultimately, Everywhere and Nowhere
reveals the long history of print anonymity so central to the risks
and benefits of the digital culture.
General
Imprint: |
University of Minnesota Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
December 2018 |
Firstpublished: |
2018 |
Authors: |
Mark Vareschi
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
224 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5179-0407-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-5179-0407-2 |
Barcode: |
9781517904074 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!