The Critical Difference

Essays in the Contemporary Rhetoric of Reading

By: Barbara Johnson

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Paperback | 14 May 1985

At a Glance

Paperback
168 Pages

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22+

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23.5 x 15.24 x 1.27

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Barbara Johnson investigates the significant and illuminating ways in which both literature and criticism ate "critically different" from what they purport to be. Her subtle and provocative studies of Balzac, Mallarme, Baudelaire, Apollinaire, Melville, Poe, Bathes, Lacan, Austin, and Derrida take a refreshing new approach to the fundamental questions of meaning, interpretation, and the relationship between literature and criticism.

In each of seven essays, a clear, precise, and detailed reading of the rhetoric of one of more literary or critical works reveals the text's fundamental discrepancies, ambuquities, and contradictions. If rhetoric is seen as language's capacity to differ from literal statement, and if "to differ" can also mean "to disagree," then the reading of the rhetoric of literature and theory here is an attempt to capture the logic of a text's own disagreement with itself.

Industry Reviews

""When it is done well, deconstructive criticism can be a pleasure to read, as it is in the case of Barbara Johnson. Her discussions of the reading process... are patient, ingenious, and persuasive.""

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature Literary Theory General Literary Studies Language & Linguistics Linguistics Semantics & Discourse Analysis

Opening Remarks	p. ix
Sexuality and Difference	p. 1
The Critical Difference: BartheS/BalZac	p. 3
Allegory's Trip-Tease: The White Waterlily	p. 13
Poetry and Difference	p. 21
Poetry and Its Double: Two Invitations au voyage	p. 23
Poetry and Performative Language: Mallarme and Austin	p. 52
Poetry and Syntax: What the Gypsy Knew	p. 67
Difference in the Act	p. 77
Melville's Fist: The Execution of Billy Budd	p. 79
The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan, Derrida	p. 110
Notes	p. 147
Index	p. 155
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

The Critical Difference

Essays in the Contemporary Rhetoric of Reading

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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