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Journal ArticleDOI

Narrative discourse : an essay in method

23 Jan 1980-Comparative Literature (Cornell University Press)-Vol. 32, Iss: 4, pp 413
TL;DR: Cutler as mentioned in this paper presents a Translator's Preface Preface and Preface for English-to-Arabic Translating Translators (TSPT) with a preface by Jonathan Cutler.
Abstract: Foreword by Jonathan Cutler Translator's Preface PrefaceIntroduction 1. Order 2. Duration 3. Frequency 4. Mood 5. VoiceAfterword Bibliography Index
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The postmodern condition as discussed by the authors is a seminal exploration of the plurality and contingency of postmodern thought, characteristics that are conspicuously shared by Hiromi Goto's novel Chorus of Mushrooms.
Abstract: EXCLUDED FROM PLATO'S REPUBLIC and from J.L. Austin's theory of performative speech acts, fictionality has been seen as a threat for as long as there have been critical debates about literature. Trends in recent philosophy have exacerbated traditional anxieties over the falsehood or sophistry implicit in literary language by suggesting that the contingent word play of art is in fact the general case, and that notions of the necessity and truth of non-literary language are a dubious construction within a general economy of fictionality. No theorist has been more associated with the exploration of these vertiginous notions than Jean-Francois Lyotard. His report on knowledge in the post-industrial West, The Postmodern Condition, remains a seminal exploration of the plurality and contingency of postmodern thought, characteristics that are conspicuously shared by Hiromi Goto's novel Chorus of Mushrooms. Gotu's book exemplifies in literary form both the possibilities and the anxieties of a postmodern vision of fiction in which issues of reality and facticity take second place to hermeneutic or experiential truth values. Lyotard's insistence on paralogy and attending to truth on an individual, local scale finds deft instantiation in Goto's narrative about narrative, about our vicarious experience of the past, and about translations between languages, between idiolect and sociolect, and between fictional versions of the truth. (1) There has been a strongly negative response to postmodernist and deconstructive thought on moral grounds by authors who claim that denying systematic standards and the hegemony of metanarratives prohibits definition of the good and so leads to nihilism. (2) Postmodernist writing thus figured looms as a threat to history, truth, and reality itself. For Lyotard, however, the seemingly relativist "linguistic turn" of postmodern theory results in a displacement of ethics rather than its ruin. He describes language in terms of the phrase: [A] phrase presents what it is about, the case, ta pragmata, which is its referent; what is signified about the case, the sense, tier Sinn; that to which or addressed to which this is signified about the case, the addressee; that "through" which or in the name of which this is signified about the case, the addressor. The disposition of a phrase universe consists in the situating of these instances in relation to each other. (Differend [section] 25) Phrases link on to other phrases according to rules provided by language games or discourse genres, but no such genre is ultimately authoritative. Phrases cannot not happen, as even silence is a phrase, but what specific phrase occurs is never necessary (Differend [section] 40, [section] 41). One's experience of language is therefore fundamentally contingent, and takes the form of a primal amazement at occurrence before taking up the meaning of any such occurrence: Before asking questions about what it is and about its significance, before the quid, it must "first" so to speak "happen," quod. That it happens "precedes," so to speak, the question pertaining to what happens. Or rather, the question precedes itself, because "that it happens" is the question relevant as event, and it "then" pertains to the event that has just happened. The event happens as a question mark "before" happening as a question. ("Sublime" 90) As such, no phrase can be the final phrase, as it can only posit a synthesis of preceding phrases, and is unable to refer to itself as event--to do so requires another phrase (Differend "Protagoras Notice" [section] 114-117). This combination of contingency and necessity has profoundly ethical consequences: The impossibility of eluding the moment of writing results in an aporia. Even when totalitarianism has won, when it occupies the whole terrain, it is not fully realized unless it has eliminated the uncontrollable contingency of writing. …

4 citations

Dissertation
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: The authors examines the implications for text and subject of the digital technology of hypertext, focusing on the printed texts of Alasdair Gray and explores the complex relationship between humans and technology depicted in his fictions.
Abstract: This thesis examines the implications for text and subject of the digital technology of hypertext. Focussing on the printed texts of Alasdair Gray, it explores the complex relationship between humans and technology depicted in his fictions. Gray’s fictional examples provide the basis for a wider discussion regarding the impact of technology upon the lives of the subjects who engage with it and in particular who engages with the technologies of writing. It aims to illustrate how digital technologies of writing can be considered in light of some of the textual concerns raised by fiction and criticism in the late age of print, notably issues of narrative theory and the cultural function of linear stories and histories. Straining in many respects against the limitations of the printed form, Gray’s boundary-pushing texts, whilst remaining firmly rooted in the aesthetic tradition of the book as object, perhaps anticipate a more flexible textual form. The digital space of hypertext can be seen to offer a new arena for the textual debate, but does it live up to the claims of some of its critics, particularly in terms of its rapport with aspects of contemporary theory? And what may be the consequences of text dematerialised in the digital medium? As well as considering the textual possibilities of hypertext, the thesis also looks at the ways in which subjects relate to technology as well as those by which technology – and particularly writing technology – relates to them. Given the ambiguous role of technology in the life of the subject – employed on the one hand as part of a project and promise of rational enlightenment through science and on the other as a military and ideological means of repression – the consequences of technological development and of the digital revolution for the written word must be closely considered. Finally, the thesis questions the types of texts that may be constructed through an engagement with the digital technology of hypertext and what types of subjects these in turn might construct.

4 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Formats of Audio and Amorousness in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity: Single, Long-Playing, and Compilation as mentioned in this paper is a collection of audio and visual representations of the novel.
Abstract: (2005). Single, Long-Playing, and Compilation: The Formats of Audio and Amorousness in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction: Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 3-21.

4 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, childhood and modern Arabic literature: the initiation story is discussed. But the authors do not discuss the role of gender in the initiation stories, and do not consider women's roles in these stories.
Abstract: (2001). Childhood and modern Arabic literature: the initiation story. Arabic & Middle Eastern Literature: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 167-178.

4 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the Name of the Mother as mentioned in this paper, the epilogue of Edna O Brien s country girls trilogy is discussed, with a focus on the women in the story.
Abstract: (2002). In the Name of the Mother … : The Epilogue of Edna O Brien s Country Girls Trilogy. Women's Studies: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 447-465.

4 citations

References
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Book
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61 citations

Book
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55 citations

Book
01 Jan 1954
TL;DR: Deuxieme tirage de cet essai critique de Georges Blin sur Stendhal, publie aux editions Jose Corti en 1954 as mentioned in this paper, et les images, une description a completer, une bibliotheque
Abstract: Deuxieme tirage de cet essai critique de Georges Blin sur Stendhal, publie aux editions Jose Corti en 1954.Deux images, une description a completer, une bibliotheque.

22 citations

Book
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7 citations

Book
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6 citations