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Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature

David Rudrum author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press

Published:23rd Apr '19

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Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature cover

An analysis of the significance of literature in the work of one of America's most influential contemporary philosophers.

Stanley Cavell is widely recognized as one of America's most important contemporary philosophers, and his legacy and writings continue to attract considerable attention among literary critics and theorists. Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature comprehensively addresses the importance of literature in Cavell's philosophy and, in turn, the potential effect of his philosophy on contemporary literary criticism.

David Rudrum dedicates a chapter to each of the writers that principally occupy Cavell, including Shakespeare, Thoreau, Beckett, Wordsworth, Ibsen, and Poe, and incorporates chapters on tragedy, skepticism, ethics, and politics. Through detailed analysis of these works, Rudrum explores Cavell's ideas on the nature of reading; the relationships among literary language, ordinary language, and performative language; the status of authors and characters; the link between tragedy and ethics; and the nature of political conversation in a democracy.

David Rudrum's impressive book . . . is likely to be the standard reference on Cavell's readings of literature within the English-speaking world for a considerable time. [An] elegant book that, one hopes, will bring Cavell to the attention of many new readers.
Paragraph
The great merit of Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature is the manner [in which] Rudrum puts together numerous leading theories and approaches, sorts through them distinctly, and acknowledges their genuine driving insights. It is a thoughtful, gracefully written book.
Review of Contemporary Philosophy
The critical readings that Cavell has published are set against deep observations relating to structuralism, poststructuralism, New Historicism, psychoanalytic criticism, and new textualism.
Choice
Rudrum responds to the philosophical, literary, and literary-philosophical writings of Stanley Cavell in a deeply Cavellian manner. Rudrum's book is deeply compelling in its own right. It claims our attention, even while permitting Cavell also to register his claims on us.
Common Knowledge

ISBN: 9781421429021

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm

Weight: 408g

304 pages