Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism

Hayden White

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985 - History - 287 pages

Tropics of Discourse develops White's ideas on interpretation in history, on the relationship between history and the novel, and on history and historicism. Vico, Croce, Derrida, and Foucault are among the figures he assesses in this work, which also offers original interpretations of a number of literary themes, including the Wild Man and the Noble Savage. White's commentary ranges from a reappraisal of Enlightenment history to a reflective summary of the current state of literary criticism.

About the author

Hayden White is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, professor emeritus of comparative literature at Stanford University, and professor emeritus of the history of consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of a number of books published by Johns Hopkins, including The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation, Metahistory, and Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism; A Johns Hopkins paperback; Johns Hopkins paperbacks edition
• Author: Hayden White
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985
• ISBN: 0801827418, 9780801827419
• Length: 287 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory; Philosophy / Criticism