1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910462634703321

Autore

Eldridge Richard Thomas <1953->

Titolo

Literature, life, and modernity [[electronic resource] /] / Richard Eldridge

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Columbia University Press, c2008

ISBN

0-231-51552-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (193 p.)

Collana

Columbia themes in philosophy, social criticism, and the arts

Disciplina

801.3

Soggetti

Literature - Philosophy

European literature - History and criticism

Literature and society

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. [157]-174) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Uses of Literature -- 2. Romanticism, Cartesianism, Humeanism, Byronism Stoppard's Arcadia -- 3. Romantic Subjectivity in Goethe and Wittgenstein -- 4. Attention, Expressive Power, and Interest in Life: Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" -- 5. The Ends of Literary Narrative: Rilke's "Archaic Torso of Apollo" -- 6. "New Centers of Reflection Are Continually Forming": Benjamin, Sebald, and Modern Human Life in Time -- Appendix: William Wordsworth: "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Richard Eldridge explores the ability of dense and formally interesting literature to respond to the complexities of modern life. Beyond simple entertainment, difficult modern works cultivate reflective depth and help their readers order and interpret their lives as subjects in relation to complex economies and technological systems. By imagining themselves in the role of the protagonist or the authorial persona, readers become immersed in structures of sustained attention, under which concrete possibilities of meaningful life, along with difficulties that block their realization, are tracked and clarified. Literary form, Eldridge argues, generates structures of care, reflection, and investment within readers, shaping—if not stabilizing—their interactions



with everyday objects and events. Through the experience of literary forms of attention, readers may come to think and live more actively, more fully engaging with modern life, rather than passively suffering it. Eldridge considers the thought of Descartes, Kant, Adorno, Benjamin, Stanley Cavell, and Charles Taylor in his discussion of Goethe, Wordsworth, Rilke, Stoppard, and Sebald, advancing a philosophy of literature that addresses our desire to read and the meaning and satisfaction that literary attention brings to our fragmented modern lives.