The Singularity of Literature

Resource Information

The work The Singularity of Literature represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The Singularity of Literature

Statement of responsibility

by Derek Attridge

Creator

• Attridge, Derek,

Subject

• Criticism (Philosophy)
• Literature -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc
• Literature -- Theory, etc

Language

• eng
• eng

Summary

The Iliad and Beowulf provide rich sources of historical information. The novels of Henry Fielding and Henry James may be instructive in the art of moral living. Some go further and argue that Emile Zola and Harriet Beecher Stowe played a part in ameliorating the lives of those existing in harsh circumstances. However, as Derek Attridge argues in this outstanding and acclaimed book, none of these capacities is distinctive of literature. What is the singularity of literature? Do the terms "literature" and "the literary" refer to actual entities found in cultures at certain times, or are they merely expressions characteristic of such cultures? Attridge argues that this resistance to definition and reduction is not a dead end, but a crucial starting point from which to explore anew the power and practices of Western art. Derek Attridge provides a rich new vocabulary for literature, rethinking such terms as "invention," "singularity," "otherness," "alterity," "performance" and "form." He returns literature to the realm of ethics, and argues for the ethical importance of literature, demonstrating how a new understanding of the literary might be put to work in a "responsible," creative mode of reading. The Singularity of Literature is not only a major contribution to the theory of literature, but also a celebration of the extraordinary pleasure of the literary, for reader, writer, student or critic. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new preface by the author.--

Member of

• Routledge Classics

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Dewey number

801

Illustrations

maps

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• dictionaries
• bibliography

Series statement

• Routledge Classics
• T&F EBS eBooks