The Poetics of Death: The Short Prose of Kleist and Balzac
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Book Overview
Traditionally, the act of writing constitutes a challenge to the finality of death. Yet "writing" as a subject for literary texts has its own tradition of imagery whose rhetoric is associated with loss rather than immortality. The limit of death seems to force a more explicit analysis of the process of writing. Writers consider the impact of their work on their readers, or re-articulate the link between the written text and the subject it is meant to represent. Each writer constructs a "subversive" text. The conjunction of writing and death--besides highlighting or demystifying the creative act--leads in each case to a decidedly critical stance. Guenther examines how Kleist's and Balzac's representations of death bring with them a critical awareness that calls attention to the historical context in which the texts are produced.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0791430235
ISBN13:9780791430231
Release Date:July 1996
Publisher:State University of New York Press
Length:216 Pages
Weight:1.08 lbs.
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