Writing Against Time

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book Writing Against Time by Michael W. Clune, Stanford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael W. Clune ISBN: 9780804784825
Publisher: Stanford University Press Publication: January 9, 2013
Imprint: Stanford University Press Language: English
Author: Michael W. Clune
ISBN: 9780804784825
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Publication: January 9, 2013
Imprint: Stanford University Press
Language: English

For centuries, a central goal of art has been to make us see the world with new eyes. Thinkers from Edmund Burke to Elaine Scarry have understood this effort as the attempt to create new forms. But as anyone who has ever worn out a song by repeated listening knows, artistic form is hardly immune to sensation-killing habit. Some of our most ambitious writers—Keats, Proust, Nabokov, Ashbery—have been obsessed by this problem. Attempting to create an image that never gets old, they experiment with virtual, ideal forms. Poems and novels become workshops, as fragments of the real world are scrutinized for insights and the shape of an ideal artwork is pieced together. These writers, voracious in their appetite for any knowledge that will further their goal, find help in unlikely places. The logic of totalitarian regimes, the phenomenology of music, the pathology of addiction, and global commodity exchange furnish them with tools and models for arresting neurobiological time. Reading central works of the past two centuries in light of their shared ambition, Clune produces a revisionary understanding of some of our most important literature.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

For centuries, a central goal of art has been to make us see the world with new eyes. Thinkers from Edmund Burke to Elaine Scarry have understood this effort as the attempt to create new forms. But as anyone who has ever worn out a song by repeated listening knows, artistic form is hardly immune to sensation-killing habit. Some of our most ambitious writers—Keats, Proust, Nabokov, Ashbery—have been obsessed by this problem. Attempting to create an image that never gets old, they experiment with virtual, ideal forms. Poems and novels become workshops, as fragments of the real world are scrutinized for insights and the shape of an ideal artwork is pieced together. These writers, voracious in their appetite for any knowledge that will further their goal, find help in unlikely places. The logic of totalitarian regimes, the phenomenology of music, the pathology of addiction, and global commodity exchange furnish them with tools and models for arresting neurobiological time. Reading central works of the past two centuries in light of their shared ambition, Clune produces a revisionary understanding of some of our most important literature.

More books from Stanford University Press

Cover of the book A Genealogy of the Modern Self by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book Science and the Life-World by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book The Political Economy of Environmental Justice by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book The Civilizing Mission in the Metropole by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book On Historicizing Epistemology by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book Contraceptive Diplomacy by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book The Figure of the Migrant by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book The Margins of Empire by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book The Size of Others' Burdens by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book The Constitution of Electoral Speech Law by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book Newsworthy by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book Sound and Sight by Michael W. Clune
Cover of the book Better Safe Than Sorry by Michael W. Clune
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy