1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910136641403321

Autore

Rooney Ellen <1957->

Titolo

Seductive Reasoning : Pluralism as the Problematic of Contemporary Literary Theory / / by Ellen Rooney

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cornell University Press, 1989

Ithaca : , : Cornell University Press, , 1989

©1989

ISBN

1-5017-0699-3

1-5017-0700-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (273 pages)

Disciplina

801/.95/01

Soggetti

Pluralism

Persuasion (Rhetoric) in literature

Literature - History and criticism - Theory, etc

Criticism - History - 20th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS OF FREQUENTLY CITED TEXTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. Reading Pluralism Symptomatically -- 2. Persuasion and the Production of Knowledge -- 3. The Limits of Pluralism Are Not Plural -- 4. "Not to Worry" : The Therapeutic Rhetoric of Stanley Fish -- 5. Not Taking Sides: Reading the Rhetoric of Persuasion -- 6. This Politics Which Is Not One -- EPILOGUE -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Seductive Reasoning takes a provocative look at contemporary Anglo-American literary theory, calling into question the critical consensus on pluralism's nature and its status in literary studies. Drawing on the insights of Marxist and feminist critical theory and on the works of Althusser, Derrida, and Foucault, Rooney reads the pluralist's invitation to join in a "dialogue" as a seductive gesture. Critics who respond find that they must seek to persuade all of their potential readers. Rooney examines pluralism as a form of logic in the work of E. D. Hirsch, as a form of ethics for Wayne Booth, as a rhetoric of persuasion in the



books of Stanley Fish. For Paul de Man, Rooney argues, pluralism was a rhetoric of tropes just as it was, for Fredric Jameson, a form of politics.