Cover image for Ethics of Literary Communication : Genuineness, directness, indirectness.
Ethics of Literary Communication : Genuineness, directness, indirectness.
Title:
Ethics of Literary Communication : Genuineness, directness, indirectness.
Author:
Sell, Roger D.
ISBN:
9789027271686
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (283 pages)
Series:
Dialogue Studies
Contents:
The Ethics of Literary Communication -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Dedication page -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- 1. Introduction -- 1. Interdisciplinary aims -- 2. Literature and communicational ethics -- 3. Main findings -- 4. In conclusion -- References -- 2. Herbert's considerateness: A communicational assessment -- References -- 3. "Not my readers but the readers of their own selves": Literature as communication with the self i -- 1. The Narrator's stated aim -- 2. 'Literature', 'self', 'message' -- 3. "It seemed to me that I myself was what the book was talking about" -- References -- 4. Intersubjective positioning and community-making: E. E. Cummings's Preface to his Collected Poems -- 1. Targeting and creating a literary audience -- 2. Theoretical background -- 3. Courtship -- 4. Commandeering -- 5. Real readers and dialogical response -- References -- 5. Genuine and distorted communication in autobiographical writing: E. M. Forster's "West Hackhurst" -- 1. An undervalued text? -- 2. Genesis, structure and first impressions -- 3. The Memoir Club as a literary site -- 4. Literary artistry in autobiographical writing -- 5. An honest portrait of communicational failure -- 6. Conclusion: Bigger than it seems -- References -- 6. Women and the public sphere: Pope's addressivity through The Dunciad -- 1. Introduction -- 2. A personal address and its consequences -- 3. Comparing notes about communication -- 4. Impolite genuineness -- References -- 7. Kipling, his narrator, and public interest -- 1. The narrator in the stories -- 2. Kipling in the autobiography -- 3. A community founded on public interest -- References -- 8. Call and response: Autonomy and dialogicity in Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Penitent -- 1. The narrative framework and communicational ethics -- 2. Religion and literature.

3. From Socrates to Aristotle -- References -- 9. Hypothetical action: Poetry under erasure in Blake, Dickinson and Eliot -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Blake's "The Tyger": The act of creation questioned -- 3. Meeting apart in Emily Dickinson's "I cannot live with You" -- 4. Prufrock's imaginary walk: Recurrent and local techniques -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 1 -- Appendix 2 -- 10. Metacommunication as ritual: Contemporary Romanian poetry -- 1. Introduction -- 2. A framework for poetic (meta)communication -- 3. Communicational pathology and cultural resistance -- 4. Literary resistance -- 5. Patterns of response to totalitarian discourse -- 6. Conclusions -- References -- Appendix -- 11. Terminal aposiopesis and sublime communication: Shakespeare's Sonnet 126 and Keats's "To Autumn" -- 1. "The vice of writing" -- 2. Terminal aposiopesis and its triple challenge -- 3. Two cases in point -- 4. Absolute sublimity and contextless communication -- References -- 12. The utopian horizon of communication: Ernst Bloch's Traces and Johann-Peter Hebel's Treasure Che -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Literature as communication -- 3. Bloch: Traces of the ultimate -- 4. The "we-problem" -- 5. Johann-Peter Hebel: The calendar story as a place of openness -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- 13. When philosophy must become literature: Søren Kierkegaard's concept of indirect communication -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Schlegel's concept of transcendental poetry -- 3. Indirect communication and the existential dilemma -- 4. Either/Or as indirect communication -- References -- 14. An aesthetics of indirection in novels and letters: Balzac's communication with Evelina Hanska -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Novels as messengers -- 3. Epistolary communication within novels -- 4. Letters as imitating literature -- 5. Balzac's devalorization of the glance or gaze.

6. The correspondent as pretext? -- References -- 15. Letters from a (post-)troubled city: Epistolary communication in Ciaran Carson's The Pen Friend -- 1. Moving onwards from the Troubles -- 2. Communication and material objects -- 3. Gabriel's (non-)communication with Nina -- 4. Virtual communities -- 5. Author-reader communication in The Pen Friend -- 6. Genuiness in action -- References -- Index.
Abstract:
Viewing literature as one among other forms of communication, Roger D. Sell and his colleagues evaluate writer-respondent relationships according to the same ethical criterion as applies for dialogue of any other kind. In a nutshell: Are writers and readers respecting each other's human autonomy? If and when the answer here is "Yes!", Sell's team describe the communication that is going on as 'genuine'. In this latest book, they offer new illustrations of what they mean by this, and ask whether genuineness is compatible with communicational directness and communicational indirectness. Is there a risk, for instance, that a very direct manner of writing could be unacceptably coercive, or that a more indirect manner could be irresponsible, or positively deceitful? The book's overall conclusion is: "Not necessarily!" A directness which is truthful and stimulates free discussion does respect the integrity of the other person. And the same is true of an indirectness which encourages readers themselves to contribute to the construction and assessment of ideas, stories and experiences - sometimes literary indirectness may allow greater scope for genuineness than does the directness of a non-literary letter. By way of illustrating these points, the book opens up new lines of inquiry into a wide range of literary texts from Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Poland, Romania, and the United States.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Electronic Access:
Click to View
Holds: Copies: