Marxism and Literary History

John Frow

Published by Harvard University Press 1986

Marxism and Literary History

John Frow

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674332812

Overview
Contents

About this book

John Frow's book is a novel contribution to Marxist literary theory, proposing a reconciliation of formalism and historicism in order to establish the basis for a new literary history. Through a critique of his forerunners in Marxist theory (the historicist Marxism of Lukács, the work of Macherey, Eagleton, and Jameson), Frow seeks to define the strengths and the limitations of this tradition and then to extend its possibilities in a radical reworking of the concept of discourse. He develops the notion of literature as a historically specific system within a network of discourses.

Frow goes on to elaborate a number of central theoretical categories and to explore the historical dimension of those categories. Drawing in particular on Russian Formalism, he develops a theory of the dynamics of literary change and of the historical pressures that shape the literary system. He tests and extends his categories through readings of texts by Petronius, Hölderlin, DeLillo, Dickens, Frank Hardy, and others. The final chapter, a reading of Derrida and Foucault, poses the question of the possibility of setting limits to reading and the power of limits to determine literary history.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
A NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xii
1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Marxism and Structuralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
3 Discourse and Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
4 Russian Formalism and the Concept of Literary System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
5 For a Literary History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
6 Intertextuality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
7 Text and System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
8 Limits: The Politics of Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 9
- Main content: 275
Illustrations
- Other: illustrations
Keywords: Discourse analysis, Literary.; Marxist criticism.; LITERARY CRITICISM / Russian & Former Soviet Union; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674332812

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1986
ISBN: 9780674332805