LEADER 02761nam 2200529Ia 450 001 9910786022803321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-283-94252-6 010 $a0-7391-7752-4 035 $a(CKB)2670000000329035 035 $a(EBL)1108244 035 $a(OCoLC)826659754 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000804824 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12341836 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000804824 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10814610 035 $a(PQKB)11197482 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC1108244 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL1108244 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10643324 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL425502 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000329035 100 $a20120706d2012 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aRedeeming words and the promise of happiness$b[electronic resource] $ea critical theory approach to Wallace Stevens and Vladamir Nabokov /$fDavid Kleinberg-Levin 210 $aLanham, MD $cLexington Books$dc2012 215 $a1 online resource (240 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-7391-7751-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aContents; Acknowledgements; Prologue; Part I: Between Wild Sense and Plain Sense: The Language of Truth in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens; 1 Truth; 2 Reason's Folly; 3 The Realism of the Imagination; 4 Word-Play: Language on Holiday; 5 Redemption?; Part II: Facing the Surface: Nabokov After Mallarme?; 6 Modernism; 7 Mischievous Predecessors; 8 Transparencies and Metamorphoses: Nabokov's Language Games; 9 When the Promise of Happiness Appears: Redeeming the Dust on the Surface; 10 Paradise of Memory and Imagination; Bibliography; Index 330 $aThis book offers a philosophical reflection on the nature of language by reading some exemplary works of literature. Drawing on the thought of philosophers-especially Plato, Kant, Hegel, Emerson, Benjamin, Adorno, Heidegger and Wittgenstein, the author argues that language is the bearer of a utopian or messianic promise of happiness, and that by redeeming the revelatory power of words, the two writers in this study are contributing to the redemption of the promise of happiness in a world of reconciled antagonisms and contradictions.