1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454116303321

Autore

Berman Russell A. <1950->

Titolo

Fiction sets you free [[electronic resource] ] : literature, liberty, and western culture / / Russell A. Berman

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University Of Iowa Press, c2007

ISBN

1-58729-709-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (263 p.)

Disciplina

809.3

Soggetti

Fiction - History and criticism - Theory, etc

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-228) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Acknowledgments; Why Literature Matters; Introduction; 1. Periodization and the Canon; 2. Human Origins and Literary Beginnings; 3. Writing and Heroism; 4. Literacy and Autonomy; 5. The Epic and the Individual; 6. Religion and Writing; 7. The Democracy of Literature; 8. Imagination and Economy; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In what can only be called a genuine intellectual adventure, Russell Berman raises fundamental questions long ignored by literary scholars; Why does literature command our attention at all? Why would society want to cultivate a sphere of activity devoted to the careful study of literary fiction? Written as a tonic to what he calls the debilitating cultural relativism of contemporary literary studies, Fiction Sets You Free advances the innovative argument that literature and capitalism, rather than representing merely commercialization, actually belie a long and positive association: literary a