The Flight from Desire

"The very elusiveness of desire-whose objects are always already substitutes and which therefore operates by a logic of deferral and supplementarity-, its continual reaching beyond presence, past need, and even past gratification into a realm in which the desiring subject is both agent and victim, makes it as difficult to write about as it is necessary to do so. Thus, The Flight from Desire in its very design addresses a set of important questions regarding poetic representation and writing as such. Edwards does this by a set of close readings of canonical texts arranged almost chronologically (he wisely discusses Augustine first, then Ovid) from Ovid to Chaucer by way of the correspondence of Abelard and Heloise, the Lais of Marie de France, Le Roman de Rose, the Vita Nuova, and Boccaccio's Filostrato. His control of a very large body of primary and secondary work is impressive, and his readings are always intelligent, often surprising, and sometimes exhilerating.." - Robert Stein, Professor of Language and Literature, Purchase College; Adjunct Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University