On Literature

Paperback

Main Details

Title On Literature
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Hillis Miller
SeriesThinking in Action
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback
Pages:176
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreLiterary theory
ISBN/Barcode 9780415261258
ClassificationsDewey:809
Audience
Undergraduate
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations black & white illustrations

Publishing Details

Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint Routledge
Publication Date 21 June 2002
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Debates rage over what kind of literature we should read, what is good and bad literature, and whether in the global, digital age, literature even has a future. But what exactly is literature? Why should we read literature? How do we read literature? These are some of the important questions J. Hillis Miller answers in this beautifully written and passionate book. He begins by asking what literature is, arguing that the answer lies in literature's ability to create an imaginary world simply with words. He describes how his early reading of The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe as a child led him to this view. He then discusses several famous writers who have used literature in this way, from Dostoevsky, Trollope, Proust and Henry James to Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida and J. M. Coetzee. On Literature also asks the crucial question of why literature has such authority over us. Returning to Plato, Aristotle and the Bible, J. Hillis Miller argues we should continue to read literature because it is part of our basic human need to create imaginary worlds and to have stories. Above all, On Literature is a plea that we continue to read and care about literature.

Reviews

"The task of "On Literature is not the banal one of attempting to recapture 'the literary' in the face of technological encroachments, but a more ambitious effort to establish the parameters of our response to these imagined, fictive, virtual realms.."-Brian Dillon, TLS