Peter Lamarque
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199577460
- eISBN:
- 9780191722998
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577460.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book explores certain fundamental metaphysical aspects of works of art, giving focus to a distinction between works and the materials that underlie or constitute them. This constitutive material ...
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This book explores certain fundamental metaphysical aspects of works of art, giving focus to a distinction between works and the materials that underlie or constitute them. This constitutive material might be physical or abstract. For each work there is an ‘object’ (i.e., the materials of its composition) associated with it and a central claim in the book is that the work is never simply identical with the ‘object’ that constitutes it. Issues about the creation of works, their distinct kinds of properties (including aesthetic properties), their amenability to interpretation, their style, the conditions under which they can go out of existence, and their relation to perceptually indistinguishable doubles (including forgeries and parodies) are raised and debated. A core theme is that works like paintings, music, literature, sculpture, architecture, films, photographs, multimedia installations, and many more besides, have fundamental features in common, as cultural artefacts, in spite of enormous surface differences. It is their nature as distinct kinds of things, grounded in distinct ontological categories, that is the subject of this enquiry. Although much of the discussion is abstract, based in analytical metaphysics, there are many specific applications, including a study of Jean-Paul Sartre's novel La Nausée and recent conceptual art. Some surprising conclusions are derived about the identity and survival conditions of works, and about the difference, often, between what a work seems to be and what it really is.Less
This book explores certain fundamental metaphysical aspects of works of art, giving focus to a distinction between works and the materials that underlie or constitute them. This constitutive material might be physical or abstract. For each work there is an ‘object’ (i.e., the materials of its composition) associated with it and a central claim in the book is that the work is never simply identical with the ‘object’ that constitutes it. Issues about the creation of works, their distinct kinds of properties (including aesthetic properties), their amenability to interpretation, their style, the conditions under which they can go out of existence, and their relation to perceptually indistinguishable doubles (including forgeries and parodies) are raised and debated. A core theme is that works like paintings, music, literature, sculpture, architecture, films, photographs, multimedia installations, and many more besides, have fundamental features in common, as cultural artefacts, in spite of enormous surface differences. It is their nature as distinct kinds of things, grounded in distinct ontological categories, that is the subject of this enquiry. Although much of the discussion is abstract, based in analytical metaphysics, there are many specific applications, including a study of Jean-Paul Sartre's novel La Nausée and recent conceptual art. Some surprising conclusions are derived about the identity and survival conditions of works, and about the difference, often, between what a work seems to be and what it really is.
Bruce Zuckerman
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195058963
- eISBN:
- 9780199853342
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195058963.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book offers an original reading of the book of Job, one of the great classics of biblical literature, and in the process develops a new formula for understanding how biblical texts evolve in the ...
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This book offers an original reading of the book of Job, one of the great classics of biblical literature, and in the process develops a new formula for understanding how biblical texts evolve in the process of transmission. The book presents the thesis that the book of Job was intended as a parody the stereotypical righteous sufferer. In this extended analogy, the book compares the book of Job and its fate to that of a famous Yiddish short story, “Bontshe Shvayg,” another covert parody whose protagonist has come to be revered as a paradigm of innocent Jewish suffering. The history of this story is used to show how a literary text becomes separated from the intention of its author, and comes to have a quite different meaning for a specific community of readers.Less
This book offers an original reading of the book of Job, one of the great classics of biblical literature, and in the process develops a new formula for understanding how biblical texts evolve in the process of transmission. The book presents the thesis that the book of Job was intended as a parody the stereotypical righteous sufferer. In this extended analogy, the book compares the book of Job and its fate to that of a famous Yiddish short story, “Bontshe Shvayg,” another covert parody whose protagonist has come to be revered as a paradigm of innocent Jewish suffering. The history of this story is used to show how a literary text becomes separated from the intention of its author, and comes to have a quite different meaning for a specific community of readers.
Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores the life of William Hone. It pays particular attention to his thought as a freethinker, parodist, and alleged blasphemer that led to his famous trials. His atheist phase was ...
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This chapter explores the life of William Hone. It pays particular attention to his thought as a freethinker, parodist, and alleged blasphemer that led to his famous trials. His atheist phase was influenced by Baron d’Holbach’s System of Nature. It then goes on to explore the contours of his reconversion and his later Christian thought.Less
This chapter explores the life of William Hone. It pays particular attention to his thought as a freethinker, parodist, and alleged blasphemer that led to his famous trials. His atheist phase was influenced by Baron d’Holbach’s System of Nature. It then goes on to explore the contours of his reconversion and his later Christian thought.
Daniel R. Melamed
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195169331
- eISBN:
- 9780199865376
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169331.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions—St. John and St. Matthew—are an essential part of the modern repertory, performed regularly both by professional ensembles and amateur groups. These ...
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Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions—St. John and St. Matthew—are an essential part of the modern repertory, performed regularly both by professional ensembles and amateur groups. These large, complex pieces are well-loved; but because of our distance from the original context in which they were performed, questions and problems emerge. Bach wrote the passions for a particular liturgical event at a specific time and place; we hear them hundreds of years later, often a world away and usually in concert performances. They were performed with vocal and instrumental forces deployed according to early 18th century conceptions; we usually hear them now as the pinnacle of the choral/orchestral repertory, adapted to modern forces and conventions. In Bach's time, passion settings were revised, altered, and tampered with both by their composers and by other musicians who used them. Today, we tend to regard them as having fixed texts, to be treated with respect. Their music was sometimes recycled from other compositions, or reused itself for other purposes. We have trouble imagining the familiar material of Bach's passion settings in any other guise. We can learn about these issues by exploring the sources that transmit Bach's passion settings today, performance practice (including the question of the size of Bach's ensemble), delving into the passions as dramatic music, examining the problem of multiple versions of a work and the reconstruction of lost pieces, exploring the other passions in Bach's performing repertory, and sifting through the puzzle of authorship.Less
Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions—St. John and St. Matthew—are an essential part of the modern repertory, performed regularly both by professional ensembles and amateur groups. These large, complex pieces are well-loved; but because of our distance from the original context in which they were performed, questions and problems emerge. Bach wrote the passions for a particular liturgical event at a specific time and place; we hear them hundreds of years later, often a world away and usually in concert performances. They were performed with vocal and instrumental forces deployed according to early 18th century conceptions; we usually hear them now as the pinnacle of the choral/orchestral repertory, adapted to modern forces and conventions. In Bach's time, passion settings were revised, altered, and tampered with both by their composers and by other musicians who used them. Today, we tend to regard them as having fixed texts, to be treated with respect. Their music was sometimes recycled from other compositions, or reused itself for other purposes. We have trouble imagining the familiar material of Bach's passion settings in any other guise. We can learn about these issues by exploring the sources that transmit Bach's passion settings today, performance practice (including the question of the size of Bach's ensemble), delving into the passions as dramatic music, examining the problem of multiple versions of a work and the reconstruction of lost pieces, exploring the other passions in Bach's performing repertory, and sifting through the puzzle of authorship.
Derek B. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195309461
- eISBN:
- 9780199871254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309461.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter argues that from the 1840s to the 1890s the representation of the Cockney in music hall went through three successive phases. It began as a parody of working-class life; then it turned ...
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This chapter argues that from the 1840s to the 1890s the representation of the Cockney in music hall went through three successive phases. It began as a parody of working-class life; then it turned into a more complex stage type played by character actors. It ended, finally, with a confusion of the real and imaginary in which the performer was seen as a “real” Cockney and no longer acting. Once this final phase had been reached, however, performers began to derive their stage representation no longer from the flesh and blood Cockney but by replicating already existing representations.Less
This chapter argues that from the 1840s to the 1890s the representation of the Cockney in music hall went through three successive phases. It began as a parody of working-class life; then it turned into a more complex stage type played by character actors. It ended, finally, with a confusion of the real and imaginary in which the performer was seen as a “real” Cockney and no longer acting. Once this final phase had been reached, however, performers began to derive their stage representation no longer from the flesh and blood Cockney but by replicating already existing representations.
Eric F. Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195151947
- eISBN:
- 9780199870400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151947.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter discusses the idea of subject-position in music — a term first developed in film theory. The complementarity of perceiver and environment in Gibson's ecological theory is extended to ...
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This chapter discusses the idea of subject-position in music — a term first developed in film theory. The complementarity of perceiver and environment in Gibson's ecological theory is extended to argue that musical materials have the capacity to place a perceiver in a certain relationship with music — ironic, humorous, accepting, critical, alienated. The ideas are first illustrated with extended analyses of two texted pop songs (by Polly Harvey and by Frank Zappa), and subsequently with shorter analyses of instrumental music: a guitar solo by Frank Zappa, a section from Stravinsky's ballet music Apollon Musagète, and the slow movement of the Haydn String Quartet Op. 54 no. 2 — all three of which feature the use of parody.Less
This chapter discusses the idea of subject-position in music — a term first developed in film theory. The complementarity of perceiver and environment in Gibson's ecological theory is extended to argue that musical materials have the capacity to place a perceiver in a certain relationship with music — ironic, humorous, accepting, critical, alienated. The ideas are first illustrated with extended analyses of two texted pop songs (by Polly Harvey and by Frank Zappa), and subsequently with shorter analyses of instrumental music: a guitar solo by Frank Zappa, a section from Stravinsky's ballet music Apollon Musagète, and the slow movement of the Haydn String Quartet Op. 54 no. 2 — all three of which feature the use of parody.
Jessica Waldoff
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195151978
- eISBN:
- 9780199870387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151978.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter considers Fiordiligi's conflicted status as a sentimental heroine. She is a woman of feeling whose affectionate sensibility and natural sympathy for the suffering of others makes her ...
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This chapter considers Fiordiligi's conflicted status as a sentimental heroine. She is a woman of feeling whose affectionate sensibility and natural sympathy for the suffering of others makes her vulnerable to men, placing her virtue “in distress”, but she is also a woman whose moral constancy is eventually overcome by the immediacy of her feelings for another. Fiordiligi's struggle brings into question one of the central tenets of the sentimental culture: that feeling makes its own virtue. Several moments crucial to this characterization are treated, including the trio “È la fede delle femmine”, the sisters' first duet No. 4, the arias “Come scoglio” and “Per pietà”, and the duet with Ferrando “Fra gli amplessi”. The climactic recognition scenes in which feeling triumphs over constancy cannot be easily reconciled with the dénouement that restores both sisters to their original partners.Less
This chapter considers Fiordiligi's conflicted status as a sentimental heroine. She is a woman of feeling whose affectionate sensibility and natural sympathy for the suffering of others makes her vulnerable to men, placing her virtue “in distress”, but she is also a woman whose moral constancy is eventually overcome by the immediacy of her feelings for another. Fiordiligi's struggle brings into question one of the central tenets of the sentimental culture: that feeling makes its own virtue. Several moments crucial to this characterization are treated, including the trio “È la fede delle femmine”, the sisters' first duet No. 4, the arias “Come scoglio” and “Per pietà”, and the duet with Ferrando “Fra gli amplessi”. The climactic recognition scenes in which feeling triumphs over constancy cannot be easily reconciled with the dénouement that restores both sisters to their original partners.
Jeffrey Magee
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195090222
- eISBN:
- 9780199871469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195090222.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
From 1923-7, Don Redman served as Henderson's principal arranger. Redman's talent lay in the way he manipulated written stock arrangements, especially within the musical strain, an approach that can ...
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From 1923-7, Don Redman served as Henderson's principal arranger. Redman's talent lay in the way he manipulated written stock arrangements, especially within the musical strain, an approach that can be heard on the numerous recordings in the period. The recordings reveal frequent departures from written form, tempo, phrasing, articulation, instrumentation, rhythm, melody, and harmony, and even the introduction of new material. Redman's playful arranging style suggests a parody of the original songs and their arrangements — a kind of signifying, exemplified in characteristic features such as Redman's penchant for novel sounds and the manner in which he scattered the melody among various soloists and sections. Henderson featured three main soloists during this period: trumpeter Howard Scott, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and trombonist Charlie Green.Less
From 1923-7, Don Redman served as Henderson's principal arranger. Redman's talent lay in the way he manipulated written stock arrangements, especially within the musical strain, an approach that can be heard on the numerous recordings in the period. The recordings reveal frequent departures from written form, tempo, phrasing, articulation, instrumentation, rhythm, melody, and harmony, and even the introduction of new material. Redman's playful arranging style suggests a parody of the original songs and their arrangements — a kind of signifying, exemplified in characteristic features such as Redman's penchant for novel sounds and the manner in which he scattered the melody among various soloists and sections. Henderson featured three main soloists during this period: trumpeter Howard Scott, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and trombonist Charlie Green.
Max Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579761
- eISBN:
- 9780191722882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579761.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter suggests a new reading of one of Pound's most contested works in terms of the contexts provided in Part I. In particular, Pound's parody of aestheticism is compared to Beerbohm's in ...
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This chapter suggests a new reading of one of Pound's most contested works in terms of the contexts provided in Part I. In particular, Pound's parody of aestheticism is compared to Beerbohm's in Seven Men. The critical tradition has been excessively preoccupied with trying to identify the speakers and ‘originals’ of each section of Mauberley. It argues that, seen in relation to the growing interest in portrait collections, composite portraiture, the disturbances in auto/biography, and imaginary art‐works, this poem sequence can be read as a parody of the forms of literary memoir, through which Pound also explores autobiography.Less
This chapter suggests a new reading of one of Pound's most contested works in terms of the contexts provided in Part I. In particular, Pound's parody of aestheticism is compared to Beerbohm's in Seven Men. The critical tradition has been excessively preoccupied with trying to identify the speakers and ‘originals’ of each section of Mauberley. It argues that, seen in relation to the growing interest in portrait collections, composite portraiture, the disturbances in auto/biography, and imaginary art‐works, this poem sequence can be read as a parody of the forms of literary memoir, through which Pound also explores autobiography.
Max Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579761
- eISBN:
- 9780191722882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579761.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter asks whether the kind of reading offered in the previous chapter disarms the possibility of modernist satire, deflecting our attention from criticism to autobiography. It discusses two ...
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This chapter asks whether the kind of reading offered in the previous chapter disarms the possibility of modernist satire, deflecting our attention from criticism to autobiography. It discusses two less equivocally satirical modernists by way of counter‐arguments to this objection. Wyndham Lewis's Time and Western Man contains some of the most forceful modernist attacks on the auto/biographic; yet Lewis offers the book as itself a kind of intellectual self‐portrait. Conversely, Richard Aldington's Soft Answers is read as a portrait‐collection, adopting modernist parodies of auto/biography in order to satirize modernists such as Eliot and Pound. It argues that (as in the case of Pound, and according to the argument introduced in the Preface) not only can satire be auto/biography, but auto/biography can also be satire. Indeed, Pound was shown in Chapter 9 to be writing both in verse; and in the Chapter 11 Woolf is shown to do both in prose. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the First World War transformed the crisis in life ‐ writing.Less
This chapter asks whether the kind of reading offered in the previous chapter disarms the possibility of modernist satire, deflecting our attention from criticism to autobiography. It discusses two less equivocally satirical modernists by way of counter‐arguments to this objection. Wyndham Lewis's Time and Western Man contains some of the most forceful modernist attacks on the auto/biographic; yet Lewis offers the book as itself a kind of intellectual self‐portrait. Conversely, Richard Aldington's Soft Answers is read as a portrait‐collection, adopting modernist parodies of auto/biography in order to satirize modernists such as Eliot and Pound. It argues that (as in the case of Pound, and according to the argument introduced in the Preface) not only can satire be auto/biography, but auto/biography can also be satire. Indeed, Pound was shown in Chapter 9 to be writing both in verse; and in the Chapter 11 Woolf is shown to do both in prose. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the First World War transformed the crisis in life ‐ writing.
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195165296
- eISBN:
- 9780199835461
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195165292.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
The mythic figure Satya Pīr has a wide following among Hindus and Muslims alike in the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia. Believed to be an avatara of krsna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he ...
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The mythic figure Satya Pīr has a wide following among Hindus and Muslims alike in the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia. Believed to be an avatara of krsna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he is worshipped for his ability to bring wealth and comfort to a family. At the heart of this worship is the simple proposition that human dignity and morality are dependent upon a proper livelihood-without wealth, people cannot be expected to live moral lives. Men have a special responsibility to create that stability, but sometimes fail miserably, making ill-advised decisions that compromise the women who are dependent upon them. At these threatening junctures, women must take matters into their own hands, and they call on Satya Pīr to help them right the wrongs done by their husbands or fathers. This book presents lively translations of eight closely related 18th- and 19th-century Bengali folk tales centered on Satya Pīr and the people he helps. While the worship of Satya Pīr is the ostensible motivation for the tales, they are really demonstrations of the Pīr's miraculous powers, which authenticate him as a legitimate object of worship. The tales are also very amusing, parodying Brahmins and yogis and kings and sepoys. These stories fly in the face of conventional wisdom about the separation of Muslims and Hindus. Moreover, the stories happily stand alone, speaking with an easily recognized if not universal voice of exasperation and amazement at what life throws at us.Less
The mythic figure Satya Pīr has a wide following among Hindus and Muslims alike in the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia. Believed to be an avatara of krsna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he is worshipped for his ability to bring wealth and comfort to a family. At the heart of this worship is the simple proposition that human dignity and morality are dependent upon a proper livelihood-without wealth, people cannot be expected to live moral lives. Men have a special responsibility to create that stability, but sometimes fail miserably, making ill-advised decisions that compromise the women who are dependent upon them. At these threatening junctures, women must take matters into their own hands, and they call on Satya Pīr to help them right the wrongs done by their husbands or fathers. This book presents lively translations of eight closely related 18th- and 19th-century Bengali folk tales centered on Satya Pīr and the people he helps. While the worship of Satya Pīr is the ostensible motivation for the tales, they are really demonstrations of the Pīr's miraculous powers, which authenticate him as a legitimate object of worship. The tales are also very amusing, parodying Brahmins and yogis and kings and sepoys. These stories fly in the face of conventional wisdom about the separation of Muslims and Hindus. Moreover, the stories happily stand alone, speaking with an easily recognized if not universal voice of exasperation and amazement at what life throws at us.
S.J. Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203581
- eISBN:
- 9780191708176
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203581.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Horace's first poetic collection presents poems which interact notably with other genres — epic, both mythological and didactic, epigram, Priapean material, etc. This higher poetic material helps ...
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Horace's first poetic collection presents poems which interact notably with other genres — epic, both mythological and didactic, epigram, Priapean material, etc. This higher poetic material helps this book of lowly sermones show poetic ambition and react to other contemporary poets such as Vergil.Less
Horace's first poetic collection presents poems which interact notably with other genres — epic, both mythological and didactic, epigram, Priapean material, etc. This higher poetic material helps this book of lowly sermones show poetic ambition and react to other contemporary poets such as Vergil.
Scott McGill
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195175646
- eISBN:
- 9780199789337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175646.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter looks at the two ancient Virgilian centos on humble topics, namely, breadmaking and dicing. A principal argument is that the presence of modest subject matter defines the texts as ...
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This chapter looks at the two ancient Virgilian centos on humble topics, namely, breadmaking and dicing. A principal argument is that the presence of modest subject matter defines the texts as parodies, and distinguishes them from the other centos. Upon situating the parodic centos in the context of ancient Virgilian parody, the chapter also explores how they function as comic, deflating poems, and the interpretive options they give their readers.Less
This chapter looks at the two ancient Virgilian centos on humble topics, namely, breadmaking and dicing. A principal argument is that the presence of modest subject matter defines the texts as parodies, and distinguishes them from the other centos. Upon situating the parodic centos in the context of ancient Virgilian parody, the chapter also explores how they function as comic, deflating poems, and the interpretive options they give their readers.
R.O.A.M. Lyne
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203963
- eISBN:
- 9780191708237
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203963.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This paper presents Tibullus and Propertius in more straightforward antagonism in their books 1 and 2, Tibullus parodying Propertius, Propertius mocking and outdoing Tibullus.
This paper presents Tibullus and Propertius in more straightforward antagonism in their books 1 and 2, Tibullus parodying Propertius, Propertius mocking and outdoing Tibullus.
Max Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579761
- eISBN:
- 9780191722882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579761.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter develops the earlier discussions of life‐writings by fictional narrators to consider sustained acts of creative impersonation: works entirely (or almost entirely) presented as written by ...
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This chapter develops the earlier discussions of life‐writings by fictional narrators to consider sustained acts of creative impersonation: works entirely (or almost entirely) presented as written by imaginary authors. It discusses Fernando Pessoa's practice of heteronymity. In this context a surprising reading of Joyce's Portrait is proposed, building on the presence in the work of Stephen Dedalus' writings (poem, journal etc.), to suggest that the entire book might be read as not just a case of free indirect style, with Joyce rendering Stephen's consciousness, but as possibly Joyce's impersonation of the autobiographical book Stephen might have written. Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno is proposed as a comparable example of a fictionally authored self‐portrait.Less
This chapter develops the earlier discussions of life‐writings by fictional narrators to consider sustained acts of creative impersonation: works entirely (or almost entirely) presented as written by imaginary authors. It discusses Fernando Pessoa's practice of heteronymity. In this context a surprising reading of Joyce's Portrait is proposed, building on the presence in the work of Stephen Dedalus' writings (poem, journal etc.), to suggest that the entire book might be read as not just a case of free indirect style, with Joyce rendering Stephen's consciousness, but as possibly Joyce's impersonation of the autobiographical book Stephen might have written. Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno is proposed as a comparable example of a fictionally authored self‐portrait.
Sophie Ratcliffe
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199239870
- eISBN:
- 9780191716799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239870.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter examines Browning's dramatic monologues in the light of his ideas about sympathy and theology, and his debt to Schleirmacher. Browning's poetry has been conventionally read as ...
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This chapter examines Browning's dramatic monologues in the light of his ideas about sympathy and theology, and his debt to Schleirmacher. Browning's poetry has been conventionally read as encouraging readers to sympathise with his fictional protagonists. Chapter 2 demonstrates that he complicates the fact of sympathizing, and presents writers, readers and protagonists as mimics and parodists, rather than true sympathizers. The chapter concludes with a close reading of ‘Caliban Upon Setebos’, demonstrating the relationship between these acts of failed sympathy, or mimicry, and Browning's belief in the incarnation.Less
This chapter examines Browning's dramatic monologues in the light of his ideas about sympathy and theology, and his debt to Schleirmacher. Browning's poetry has been conventionally read as encouraging readers to sympathise with his fictional protagonists. Chapter 2 demonstrates that he complicates the fact of sympathizing, and presents writers, readers and protagonists as mimics and parodists, rather than true sympathizers. The chapter concludes with a close reading of ‘Caliban Upon Setebos’, demonstrating the relationship between these acts of failed sympathy, or mimicry, and Browning's belief in the incarnation.
Sophie Ratcliffe
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199239870
- eISBN:
- 9780191716799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239870.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter considers Auden's longer poems, especially The Sea and the Mirror, with reference to his ideas about sympathy and theological belief. It demonstrates how Auden's concerns about Freudian ...
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This chapter considers Auden's longer poems, especially The Sea and the Mirror, with reference to his ideas about sympathy and theological belief. It demonstrates how Auden's concerns about Freudian developmental theories of emotion and sympathy affected his formal choices, particularly his use of allusion and rhyme. Formerly unnoticed allusions to Henry James's writing in Auden's poetry are explored. Chapter 3 counters post-structuralist readings of later Auden demonstrating that this repeated use of allusion has a theological intent.Less
This chapter considers Auden's longer poems, especially The Sea and the Mirror, with reference to his ideas about sympathy and theological belief. It demonstrates how Auden's concerns about Freudian developmental theories of emotion and sympathy affected his formal choices, particularly his use of allusion and rhyme. Formerly unnoticed allusions to Henry James's writing in Auden's poetry are explored. Chapter 3 counters post-structuralist readings of later Auden demonstrating that this repeated use of allusion has a theological intent.
Sophie Ratcliffe
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199239870
- eISBN:
- 9780191716799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239870.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter examines Beckett's allusions to The Tempest, shedding light on his views on the idea of sympathy. Opposing Nussbaum's perception of Beckett's writing as a ‘critique of emotion’, Chapter ...
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This chapter examines Beckett's allusions to The Tempest, shedding light on his views on the idea of sympathy. Opposing Nussbaum's perception of Beckett's writing as a ‘critique of emotion’, Chapter 4 demonstrates that Beckett critiques the ways in which emotional formulae can be constructed by works of fiction. Tracing echoes of Browning's ‘Caliban Upon Setebos’ in Beckett's How It Is, this chapter goes on to demonstrate that Beckett's allusions to Shakespeare and Browning are a parodic critique of object-centred ideas of reading, thus extending our sense of the ethical aspects of his work.Less
This chapter examines Beckett's allusions to The Tempest, shedding light on his views on the idea of sympathy. Opposing Nussbaum's perception of Beckett's writing as a ‘critique of emotion’, Chapter 4 demonstrates that Beckett critiques the ways in which emotional formulae can be constructed by works of fiction. Tracing echoes of Browning's ‘Caliban Upon Setebos’ in Beckett's How It Is, this chapter goes on to demonstrate that Beckett's allusions to Shakespeare and Browning are a parodic critique of object-centred ideas of reading, thus extending our sense of the ethical aspects of his work.
Jane de Gay
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623495
- eISBN:
- 9780748651849
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623495.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This book explores Virginia Woolf's preoccupation with the literary past and its profound impact on the content and structure of her novels. It analyses Woolf's reading and writing practices via her ...
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This book explores Virginia Woolf's preoccupation with the literary past and its profound impact on the content and structure of her novels. It analyses Woolf's reading and writing practices via her essays, diaries and reading notebooks, and presents chronological studies of eight of her novels, exploring how Woolf's intensive reading surfaced in her fiction. The book sheds light on Woolf's varied and intricate use of literary allusions; examines ways in which Woolf revisited and revised plots and tropes from earlier fiction; and looks at how she used parody as a means both of critical comment and homage. It offers fresh insights into individual works, and provides a challenging and provocative new perspective on Woolf's art as a novelist.Less
This book explores Virginia Woolf's preoccupation with the literary past and its profound impact on the content and structure of her novels. It analyses Woolf's reading and writing practices via her essays, diaries and reading notebooks, and presents chronological studies of eight of her novels, exploring how Woolf's intensive reading surfaced in her fiction. The book sheds light on Woolf's varied and intricate use of literary allusions; examines ways in which Woolf revisited and revised plots and tropes from earlier fiction; and looks at how she used parody as a means both of critical comment and homage. It offers fresh insights into individual works, and provides a challenging and provocative new perspective on Woolf's art as a novelist.
Peter Lamarque
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199577460
- eISBN:
- 9780191722998
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577460.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter offers and contrasts two definitions of style: a feature-based definition, according to which style is determined by intrinsic properties; and an act-based definition, where style is ...
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This chapter offers and contrasts two definitions of style: a feature-based definition, according to which style is determined by intrinsic properties; and an act-based definition, where style is characterized as a way of doing something. Also presented is the distinction, from Richard Wollheim and Jenefer Robinson, between individual and general styles, where the former but not the latter express underlying psychological states. A central question concerns what limits there are on the imitation or reproduction of individual styles. Cases of parody and forgery are examined – Max Beerbohm's parodies of Henry James and van Meegeren's forgeries of Vermeer – and the conclusion is drawn that however good these imitations are they fail to capture the individual styles of their target, at least on the act-based definition.Less
This chapter offers and contrasts two definitions of style: a feature-based definition, according to which style is determined by intrinsic properties; and an act-based definition, where style is characterized as a way of doing something. Also presented is the distinction, from Richard Wollheim and Jenefer Robinson, between individual and general styles, where the former but not the latter express underlying psychological states. A central question concerns what limits there are on the imitation or reproduction of individual styles. Cases of parody and forgery are examined – Max Beerbohm's parodies of Henry James and van Meegeren's forgeries of Vermeer – and the conclusion is drawn that however good these imitations are they fail to capture the individual styles of their target, at least on the act-based definition.
