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Jane Austen was one of the most adventurous thinkers of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but one would probably
never guess that by reading her critics. Perhaps no canonical
author in English literature has proven, until now, more resistant
to theory. Tracing the political motives for this resistance, Jane
Austen and Literary Theory proceeds to counteract it. The book's
detailed interpretations guide readers through some of the
important intellectual achievements of Austen's career-from the
stunning teenage parodies "Evelyn" and "The History of England" to
her most accomplished novels, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park,
and Emma. While criticism has largely been content to describe the
various ways Austen was a product of her time, Jane Austen and
Literary Theory reveals how she anticipated the ideas of formidable
literary thinkers of the twentieth century, especially Jacques
Derrida and Paul de Man. Gift and exchange, speech and writing,
symbol and allegory, stable irony and Romantic irony-these are just
a few of the binary oppositions her dazzling texts deconstruct.
Although her novels are major achievements of nineteenth-century
realism, critics have hitherto underestimated their rhetorical
cunning and their fascination with the materiality of language.
Doing justice to Austen's language requires critical methods as
ruthless as her irony, and Jane Austen and Literary Theory supplies
these methods. This book will enable both her devotees and her
detractors to appreciate her genius in unusual ways.
Jane Austen was one of the most adventurous thinkers of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but one would probably
never guess that by reading her critics. Perhaps no canonical
author in English literature has proven, until now, more resistant
to theory. Tracing the political motives for this resistance, Jane
Austen and Literary Theory proceeds to counteract it. The book's
detailed interpretations guide readers through some of the
important intellectual achievements of Austen's career-from the
stunning teenage parodies "Evelyn" and "The History of England" to
her most accomplished novels, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park,
and Emma. While criticism has largely been content to describe the
various ways Austen was a product of her time, Jane Austen and
Literary Theory reveals how she anticipated the ideas of formidable
literary thinkers of the twentieth century, especially Jacques
Derrida and Paul de Man. Gift and exchange, speech and writing,
symbol and allegory, stable irony and Romantic irony-these are just
a few of the binary oppositions her dazzling texts deconstruct.
Although her novels are major achievements of nineteenth-century
realism, critics have hitherto underestimated their rhetorical
cunning and their fascination with the materiality of language.
Doing justice to Austen's language requires critical methods as
ruthless as her irony, and Jane Austen and Literary Theory supplies
these methods. This book will enable both her devotees and her
detractors to appreciate her genius in unusual ways.
Chaucerian Ecopoetics performs ecocritical close readings of
Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry. Shawn Normandin explains how Chaucer's
language demystifies the aesthetic charm of his narratives and
calls into question the anthropocentrism they often depict. This
text combines ecocriticism with reading techniques associated with
deconstruction, to provide innovative interpretations of the
General Prologue, the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's
Tale, the Franklin's Tale, the Physician's Tale, and the Monk's
Tale. In stressing the importance of rhetorical nuance and literary
form, Chaucerian Ecopoetics enables readers to better understand
the ideological prehistory of today's environmental crisis.
Chaucerian Ecopoetics performs ecocritical close readings of
Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry. Shawn Normandin explains how Chaucer's
language demystifies the aesthetic charm of his narratives and
calls into question the anthropocentrism they often depict. This
text combines ecocriticism with reading techniques associated with
deconstruction, to provide innovative interpretations of the
General Prologue, the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's
Tale, the Franklin's Tale, the Physician's Tale, and the Monk's
Tale. In stressing the importance of rhetorical nuance and literary
form, Chaucerian Ecopoetics enables readers to better understand
the ideological prehistory of today's environmental crisis.
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