Research Catalog

Title

The critical double : figurative meaning in aesthetic discourse / Paul Gordon ; with a foreword by J. Hillis Miller.

Author

Gordon, Paul, 1951-

Publication

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Miller, J. Hillis (Joseph Hillis), 1928-2021

Description

xx, 176 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

• Over 25 centuries ago, the Greek philosopher and sophist Protagoras equated his famous notion of "man is the measure of all things" with another that declared "On every question there are two opposing answers, including this one." The purpose of The Critical Double is to demonstrate that this second Protagorean notion constitutes one of the fundamental principles of aesthetic and rhetorical theory. This work formulates, for the first time, a succinct model for the deconstructive analysis of aesthetic discourse. While the stated purpose of this work is to redefine a critical methodology, its originality lies in its emphasis on the notion of duality, or doubling, as the essential way to distinguish aesthetic from other forms of discourse.
• The first two chapters, on metaphor and rhetoric respectively, establish a solid basis for this model, for theories of metaphor and rhetoric have almost always been clearly marked by their emphasis on duality. The remaining six chapters all develop this model in their respective contexts.

Subject

• Literature > Philosophy
• Opposition, Theory of
• Polarity (Philosophy)
• Polarity in literature
• Rhetoric > 1500-1800
• Metaphor
• Rhetoric

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-174) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The metaphoric double -- The rhetorical double: Protagoras and the Dissoi logoi -- The parabolic double: Christ's and Kafka's parables of parable -- The tragic double: a Dionysian theory of Greek tragedy -- The psychoanalytic double: psychoanalysis, art, and "the antithetical sense of primary words" -- The critical double: figuring out Henry James's "The figure in the carpet" -- The deconstructive double: sign and symbol in the aesthetics of Paul de Man -- The comparative double: romanticism, figuration, and comparative literature.

ISBN

0817307109 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^93047085^

OCLC

29638291

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library