The Philosophy of Literary FormFrom the ForewordThese pieces are selections from work done in the Thirties, a decade so changeable that I at first thought of assembling them under the title, "While Everything Flows." Their primary interest is in speculation on the nature of linguistic, or symbolic, or literary action--and in a search for more precise ways of locating or defining such action. Words are aspects of a much wider communicative context, most of which is not verbal at all. Yet words also have a nature peculiarly their own. And when discussing them as modes of action, we must consider both this nature as words in themselves and the nature they get from the non-verbal scenes that support their acts. I shall be happy if the reader can say of this book that, while always considering words as acts upon a scene, it avoids the excess of environmentalist schools which are usually so eager to trace the relationships between act and scene that they neglect to trace the structure of the act itself. |
Contents
I | xxvii |
II | 136 |
III | 166 |
IV | 189 |
V | 219 |
VI | 232 |
VII | 256 |
IX | 291 |
XI | 312 |
XII | 321 |
XIII | 327 |
XIV | 342 |
XV | 348 |
XVII | 359 |
XVIII | 367 |
X | 303 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ablaut action Aeschylus aesthetic analysis Ancient Mariner arpeggio artist Aryan aspects attempt attitude basis become benign Caesar chart chiasmus Coleridge Coleridge's conflict consider consubstantiality coöperative coördinates criticism debunking dialectical doctrine drama emphasis Eolian equations ethical explicitly fact familistic feel Freud Freudian function give God's Little Acre Grapes of Wrath Hence Hitler human identity imagery imagine incantatory incest ingredients instance interpretation kind literary magic Marxist material matter meaning ment merely metaphor method modes moral motivation nature Nazi one's organization pattern perspective philosophy play poem poet poet's poetic poetry political problem psychology purely R. P. Blackmur rational reference relationship ritual rôle scapegoat seems semantic ideal sense simply situation social strategy stress structure Stuart Chase suggest symbolic act synecdochic theory things thought tion Tobacco Road transubstantiated values variant whereby word writing