1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823075303321

Autore

Ragussis Michael

Titolo

Acts of naming : the family plot in fiction / / Michael Ragussis

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Oxford University Press, 1986

ISBN

1-280-52314-X

0-19-536487-2

1-4294-0093-5

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (279 p.)

Disciplina

823/.009/24

Soggetti

English fiction - History and criticism

Names, Personal, in literature

Families in literature

American fiction - History and criticism

Plots (Drama, novel, etc.)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliography: p.245-261 and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Introduction: In the Name of the Child; 1 Clarissa, or the Name Lost; 2 Oliver Twist, or the Name Found; 3 Pierre, or the American Myth of the Name Transcended; 4 The Scarlet Letter; 5 Bleak House; 6 The Mill on the Floss; 7 Tess of the d'Urbervilles; 8 Lolita; 9 Epilogue; Notes; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; V; W; Z

Sommario/riassunto

Michael Ragussis re-reads the novelistic tradition by arguing the acts of naming--bestowing, revealing, or earning a name; taking away, hiding, or prohibiting a name; slandering, or protecting and serving it--lie at the center of fictional plots from the 18th century to the present. Againstthe background of philosophic approaches to naming, Acts of Naming reveals the ways in which systems of naming are used to appropriate characters in novels as diverse as Clarissa, Fanny Hill, Oliver Twist, Pierre, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Remembrance of Things Past, and Lolita, and identifiesunnaming and r