The Senses of the Text: Intensional Semantics and Literary Theory

Dowling, William C.

ISBN 10: 0803217110 / ISBN 13: 9780803217119

Edité par University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE, 1999

A propos de cet article

Hardcover. An ex-library copy in maroon cloth lettered in silver. The usual ex-libris markings (but no card pocket). The binding is sound, the text is clean/unmarked, and there is little cover wear. No dust jacket.

N° de réf. du vendeur 061815

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Senses of the Text: Intensional Semantics and Literary Theory
• Éditeur: University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE
• Date de parution: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0803217110
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780803217119
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Good
• État de la jaquette: No Dust Jacket
• Type de livre: Book

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

In recent years the notion of determinate meaning - the idea that a word or a line in a literary text means one thing rather than another thing, X rather than Y - has been widely rejected in the name of Derrida and difference, reader-response criticism, and 'ideological' approaches proclaiming meaning to be no more than a site of political contestation. Yet determinate meaning, says William C. Dowling, cannot be rejected in this way. Like the ratio named by p or the primeness of prime numbers in mathematics, it has been there all along, waiting for our theories to catch up. The proof that this is so, he argues, is today most compellingly available in the New Intensionalism of Jerrold J. Katz, which provides a powerful demonstration that the method of 'close reading' developed by New Criticism remains the only valid basis for higher-order interpretation. For readers with no technical background in linguistics or logic, "The Senses of the Text" provides a clear and easily-understood introduction to the 'Chomskyan revolution' in linguistic theory and to major issues in the philosophy of language, including the work of Frege, Wittgenstein, Quine, Carnap, Kripke, and Davidson. William C. Dowling is a professor of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of, most recently, "Literary Federalism in the Age of Jefferson."