Fred Miller Robinson - The comedy of language: studies in modern comic literature

The comedy of language: studies in modern comic literature — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The comedy of language: studies in modern comic literature" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...78

---

title	:	The Comedy of Language : Studies in Modern Comic Literature
author	:	Robinson, Fred Miller.
publisher	:	University of Massachusetts Press
isbn10 | asin	:	0870232975
print isbn13	:	9780870232978
ebook isbn13	:	9780585142210
language	:	English
subject	American literature--20th century--History and criticism, Comic, The, English fiction--Irish authors--History and criticism, English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.
publication date	:	1980
lcc	:	PS228.C59R6eb
ddc	:	820/.9/17
subject	:	American literature--20th century--History and criticism, Comic, The, English fiction--Irish authors--History and criticism, English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Page i Wittgenstein was I think wrong when he said that about that which we do not know, we should not speak. He closed by fiat a great amusement park, there. Donald Barthelme For the only way we can speak of nothing is to speak of it as though it were something.... Samuel Beckett Personally, I like words to sound wrong. Wallace Stevens

Page iii The Comedy of Language Studies in Modern Comic Literature Fred Miller Robinson The University of Massachusetts Press Amherst, 1980

Page iv Acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission to reprint selections from copyrighted material: From the book Comedy, copyright 1956 by Wylie Sypher, which contains "Laughter" by Henri Bergson. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday and Company, Inc. From Henri Bergson, An Introduction to Metaphysics, translated by T. E. Hulme, copyright 1949, 1955 by The Liberal Arts Press, Inc., and reprinted by permission of The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. From J. P. Lebel, Buster Keaton, translated by P. D. Stovin, reprinted by permission of The Tantivy Press, London.From Samuel Beckett, Watt, Stories and Texts for Nothing, and Three Novels reprinted by permission of Grove Press, Inc. From James Joyce, Ulysses (published by Modern Library, copyright 1942, 1946 by Nora Joseph Joyce); from Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (published by Alfred A. Knopf, copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens) and Opus Posthumous, edited by Samuel French Morse (published by Alfred A. Knopf, copyright 1957 by Elsie Stevens and Holly Stevens); and from William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (published by Vintage, copyright 1957 by William Faulkner), reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright 1980 by The University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America LC 80-125 ISBN 0-87023-297-5 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data appear on the last page of the book.

Page v To my mother, Florence Carmon Robinson

Page vii Contents Preface ix The Comedy of Language 1 Joyce: Ulysses 25 Faulkner: As I Lay Dying 51 Wallace Stevens: The Poet as Comedian 89 Samuel Beckett: Watt 127 Afterword 175 Notes 179 Index 187

Page ix Preface My intention in writing this book is to make a contribution both to the theory of comedy and to a specific practice of it in the twentieth century. My subject is the comedy engendered by the contradictions between the nature of reality and the nature of language, the subject and the medium of the comic writer. The twentieth century did not invent these contradictions, and it is possible that earlier comediesfor example, As You Like It or Don Quixote or Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme or Tristram Shandycan be profitably analyzed as comedies of language. It is my opinion that they can be, although that is the subject of another study. Certainly the twentieth century is the century obsessed by these contradictions. As I will argue in my first chapter, it is a century peculiarly concerned with (1) reality as metaphysical flux, and (2) language as a symbol-making process. Because of these deep and pervasive concerns, the comedy of language can be said to be a period style of modern comic literature, if not of modern literature in general. There are many kinds of twentieth-century comedy not touched on in this book. This study is not meant to be a comprehensive review, a compendium, a display of range and variety. My argument is that comedies of language are our essential texts in the study of modern comedy. They are major texts by some of our greatest writers. They have the range and complexity to touch on our most profound and representatively modern problems. The Comedy of Language, then, is a study, or a series of studies, in depth. I am assuming that detailed analyses of major works will have their own peculiar resonance for readers, that the essential ex-

Next page

1234567...78

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The comedy of language: studies in modern comic literature»

Look at similar books to The comedy of language: studies in modern comic literature. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Judith Roof

The Comic Event: Comedic Performance from the 1950s to the Present

Elizabeth Kraft

A Cultural History of Comedy in the Age of Enlightenment

Louise Peacock

A Cultural History of Comedy in the Modern Age

C. W. Marshall (editor)

Athenian Comedy in the Roman Empire

Stott

Comedy

Ioannis N. Perysinakis

Plautine Trends: Studies in Plautine Comedy and its Reception. Festschrift in honour of Prof. D. K. Raios

Matthew Bevis

Comedy: A Very Short Introduction

J. F. Bernard

Shakespearean Melancholy: Philosophy, Form and the Transformation of Comedy

Alfie Bown

In the Event of Laughter: Psychoanalysis, Literature and Comedy

Bevis

Comedy: A Very Short Introduction

John Vorhaus

The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If Youre Not

Stanley Elkin

Boswell: A Modern Comedy (American Literature (Dalkey Archive))

Discussion, reviews of the book The comedy of language: studies in modern comic literature and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.