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The Resource Rousseau's legacy : emergence and eclipse of the writer in France, Dennis Porter

Rousseau's legacy : emergence and eclipse of the writer in France, Dennis Porter

Creator
Summary
  • Porter combines a wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary theory and cultural history over the past two centuries in his readings of works by a number of major French writers; he situates their work in larger cultural and political transformations. In addition to the literary texts, he also touches on the "idea" of the writer as represented in paintings, engravings, and photographs. Examining the works of Stendhal, Baudelaire, Sartre, Barthes, Duras, Althusser, and Foucault, Rousseau's Legacy is of obvious interest to scholars and students of modern French literature and culture, and, given the influence of French philosophy and literary theory on literary and cultural studies in this century, it will also appeal to a broader nonspecialist readership
  • Porter concludes with the provocative claim that, with the collapse among intellectuals of faith in revolution, and with the degeneration of confession into the stuff of TV talk shows, the idea of the writer as an agent for moral and political change is also in eclipse
  • In modern Western literary culture, the writer who combines autobiographical witness with political critique has been the object of particular veneration, as the careers of such celebrated figures as Jean-Paul Sartre and Marguerite Duras among others attest. Dennis Porter argues in Rousseau's Legacy that this cultural idea of the writer - as distinct from the more traditional "man of letters"--First emerged in France in the decades preceding the French revolution, and has continued to exercise a nominative power over intellectual life well into our own day. In Porter's paradigm, Jean-Jacques Rousseau serves as a seminal figure who combined radical critique of existing institutions with a new form of confessional writing and a suspicion of the art of literature. Rousseau inaugurated the idea of a heroic and committed writerly life in which the opposition between public and private self is collapsed
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
306 pages
Contents
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: putting the polis in command
  • Stendhal: overpoliticization and the revenge of literature
  • Charles Baudelaire: portrait of the poet as antiwriter
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: writer, militant, graphomaniac
  • The cultural twilight of Roland Barthes
  • Marguerite Duras: autobiographical acts, celebrity status
  • Epilogue: From Althusser's Theory of a murder to Foucault's Aesthetics of existence
Isbn
9780195091076
Instance
Label
Rousseau's legacy : emergence and eclipse of the writer in France
Title
Rousseau's legacy
Title remainder
emergence and eclipse of the writer in France
Statement of responsibility
Dennis Porter
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
  • Porter combines a wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary theory and cultural history over the past two centuries in his readings of works by a number of major French writers; he situates their work in larger cultural and political transformations. In addition to the literary texts, he also touches on the "idea" of the writer as represented in paintings, engravings, and photographs. Examining the works of Stendhal, Baudelaire, Sartre, Barthes, Duras, Althusser, and Foucault, Rousseau's Legacy is of obvious interest to scholars and students of modern French literature and culture, and, given the influence of French philosophy and literary theory on literary and cultural studies in this century, it will also appeal to a broader nonspecialist readership
  • Porter concludes with the provocative claim that, with the collapse among intellectuals of faith in revolution, and with the degeneration of confession into the stuff of TV talk shows, the idea of the writer as an agent for moral and political change is also in eclipse
  • In modern Western literary culture, the writer who combines autobiographical witness with political critique has been the object of particular veneration, as the careers of such celebrated figures as Jean-Paul Sartre and Marguerite Duras among others attest. Dennis Porter argues in Rousseau's Legacy that this cultural idea of the writer - as distinct from the more traditional "man of letters"--First emerged in France in the decades preceding the French revolution, and has continued to exercise a nominative power over intellectual life well into our own day. In Porter's paradigm, Jean-Jacques Rousseau serves as a seminal figure who combined radical critique of existing institutions with a new form of confessional writing and a suspicion of the art of literature. Rousseau inaugurated the idea of a heroic and committed writerly life in which the opposition between public and private self is collapsed
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1933-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Porter, Dennis
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
  • French literature
  • Authorship
  • Politics and literature
  • Literature and society
  • Authors and readers
  • Autobiography
  • Authorship
  • France
Label
Rousseau's legacy : emergence and eclipse of the writer in France, Dennis Porter
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: putting the polis in command
  • Stendhal: overpoliticization and the revenge of literature
  • Charles Baudelaire: portrait of the poet as antiwriter
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: writer, militant, graphomaniac
  • The cultural twilight of Roland Barthes
  • Marguerite Duras: autobiographical acts, celebrity status
  • Epilogue: From Althusser's Theory of a murder to Foucault's Aesthetics of existence
Control code
30702155
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
306 pages
Isbn
9780195091076
Lccn
94026408
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(WaOLN)1654486
Label
Rousseau's legacy : emergence and eclipse of the writer in France, Dennis Porter
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: putting the polis in command
  • Stendhal: overpoliticization and the revenge of literature
  • Charles Baudelaire: portrait of the poet as antiwriter
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: writer, militant, graphomaniac
  • The cultural twilight of Roland Barthes
  • Marguerite Duras: autobiographical acts, celebrity status
  • Epilogue: From Althusser's Theory of a murder to Foucault's Aesthetics of existence
Control code
30702155
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
306 pages
Isbn
9780195091076
Lccn
94026408
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(WaOLN)1654486

Subject

Library Locations

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      38.710138 -90.311107

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