The Boundaries of Genre: Dostoevsky's "Diary of a Writer" and the Traditions of Literary Utopia - Couverture souple

Morson, Gary Saul

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0810108119 ISBN 13 : 9780810108110

Editeur : Northwestern University Press, 1988

Synopsis

Using Dostoevsky's most radical experiment in literary form as a springboard, Gary Saul Morson examines a number of key topics in contemporary literary theory, including the nature of literary genres and their relation to interpretation. He convincingly argues that genre is not a property of texts alone but arises from the interaction between texts and readers. Observing that changing conventions of interpretation and classification may alter the perception of particular works, Morson considers a number of problematic texts that have been read according to two contradictory sets of conventions - "boundary works" - and a further group of texts - "threshold works" such as Dostoevsky's Diary of a Writer - that were evidently designed by their authors to exploit this kind of hermeneutic ambivalence. Morson explores the nature of the literary utopia and its parodic form, the anti-utopia, and, returning to Dostoevsky's Diary as his example, a third form which exists as a sort of open dialogue of utopia and anti-utopia. Gary Saul Morson is Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature at Northwestern University.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Northwestern University Press
• Date d'édition: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0810108119
• ISBN 13: 9780810108110
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 219