What is Literature for?
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 30 November 2006
Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, French, European
| Author: | Antoine Compagnon | ISBN: | 9782722602755 |
| Publisher: | Collège de France | Publication: | February 7, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Collège de France | Language: | English |
| Author: | Antoine Compagnon |
| ISBN: | 9782722602755 |
| Publisher: | Collège de France |
| Publication: | February 7, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Collège de France |
| Language: | English |
Along with the theoretical or traditionally historical question “What is literature?”, the critical and political question “What can literature do?” begs an answer. What value do contemporary society and culture ascribe to literature? What utility? What role? “My confidence in the future of literature”, wrote Italo Calvino, consists in the knowledge that there are things that only literature can give us, by means specific to it”. Is this still relevant to us today?
Along with the theoretical or traditionally historical question “What is literature?”, the critical and political question “What can literature do?” begs an answer. What value do contemporary society and culture ascribe to literature? What utility? What role? “My confidence in the future of literature”, wrote Italo Calvino, consists in the knowledge that there are things that only literature can give us, by means specific to it”. Is this still relevant to us today?
