The Work of Difference: Modernism, Romanticism, and the Production of Literary Form

by Audrey Wasser

The Work of Difference addresses a fundamental ontological question: What is literature? And at the heart of this question, it argues, is the problem of the new. How is it that new works or new forms are possible within the rule-governed orders of history, language use, or the social? How are new works in turn recognizable to already-existing institutions? Tracing the relationship between literature and the problem of newness back to a set of concerns first articulated in early German romanticism, this book goes on to mount a critique of romantic tendencies in contemporary criticism in order, ultimately, to develop an original theory of literary production. Along the way, it offers new readings of major modernist novels by Samuel Beckett, Marcel Proust, and Gertrude Stein.

216 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2016

Reviews

[Manuel Correa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veladamente, el diálogo con otras fuentes teóricas (como P. De Man) de Audrey, puede considerarse como continuidad de una noción de la literatura desde una ontología de lo inmanente (ya desde cierto acercamiento postestrucuralista). Parece que la breve revisión de algunos conceptos deleuzianos requiere una profundización que hace falta notar. Sin embargo, es como una bocanada de aire fresco después de el sesgo deconstructivo de la escuela de Yale.