The Puritan and the Cynic: Moralists and Theorists in French and American LettersWhy do Americans, and so often, American writers, profess moral sentiments and yet write so little in the traditionally "moralistic" genres of maxim and fable? What is the relation between "moral" concerns and literary theory? Can any sort of morality survive the supposed nihilism of deconstruction? Jefferson Humphries undertakes a discussion of questions like these through a comparative reading of the ways in which moral issues surface in French and American literature. Humphries takes issue with the "amoral" view of deconstruction espoused by many of its detractors, arguing that the debate between the theory's advocates and opponents comes down to two opposing literary and moral traditions. While the American tradition views morality as a rigid system capable of being enforced by injunctions along the lines of "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not," the French tradition conceives of morality as a function of a relentless and unsentimental pursuit of truth, and finally, an admission that "truth" is not a static thing, but rather an ongoing process of rigorous thought. |
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Page 17
... Richard The maxim has had only one significant practitioner in the history of American letters : Franklin's “ Poor Richard ” Saunders . As Poor Richard , Franklin did not compose maxims of his own so much as recast and refine what ...
... Richard The maxim has had only one significant practitioner in the history of American letters : Franklin's “ Poor Richard ” Saunders . As Poor Richard , Franklin did not compose maxims of his own so much as recast and refine what ...
Page 21
... Richard says . ( Papers , VII , 340 ) Father Abraham goes on in like fashion , quoting Poor Richard at every turn for several pages . More interesting than anything he says is Richard's conclusion . Thus the old Gentleman ended his ...
... Richard says . ( Papers , VII , 340 ) Father Abraham goes on in like fashion , quoting Poor Richard at every turn for several pages . More interesting than anything he says is Richard's conclusion . Thus the old Gentleman ended his ...
Page 22
... Richard represents as normal and even predictable . The pleasure which these con- sumers find in aphoristic discourse has very little to do with acting upon the truth it pretends to adumbrate , or with believing in such a truth . What ...
... Richard represents as normal and even predictable . The pleasure which these con- sumers find in aphoristic discourse has very little to do with acting upon the truth it pretends to adumbrate , or with believing in such a truth . What ...
Contents
The Golden Age of Aphorism | 3 |
Blaise Pascal | 26 |
Deconstruction | 56 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
allegory American aphorism aphoristic appears autre believe Blanchot Brer Bruyère C'est Chamfort chiasmus chunes Cicero classical common commonplace concept Cotton Mather critics death deconstruction desire discourse divine Edited Edwards embrace enact epigram epigrammatic Èsù fable fact fait Fontaine fragment fragmentary Franklin French genre grapes Harris human illusion integrity involuntary memory irony knowledge La Bruyère La Rochefoucauld Lacan language Lentricchia less literary literature Logos Man's masks Mather Maurice Blanchot meaning metaphor moral moralist n'est nature never original paradox Pascal perception pleasure poem poet poetry Poor Richard possible Proust pure puritan qu'il question Quintillian rabbit reader reading reflects René Char repeated repetition represent rhetoric Rochefoucauld Rubin signifying story subject and object temporal temps tension thing thought tout translation trope truth Uncle Remus universal Vauvenargues virtue witchcraft words writer of maxims Young Goodman Brown