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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 15
Page 53
... meaning . meaning in flight . " This reversal sets up virtuality , a tension much like Proust's , which holds back from Blanchot's ideal of death within the text while hovering within astoundingly close range of it , in the very arc of ...
... meaning . meaning in flight . " This reversal sets up virtuality , a tension much like Proust's , which holds back from Blanchot's ideal of death within the text while hovering within astoundingly close range of it , in the very arc of ...
Page 80
... meaning . At the end there is no revelation save the banal assertion — which we are left to complete - that it is better to denigrate an object that is out of reach than to pursue it futilely . This is cliché , something we already knew ...
... meaning . At the end there is no revelation save the banal assertion — which we are left to complete - that it is better to denigrate an object that is out of reach than to pursue it futilely . This is cliché , something we already knew ...
Page 97
... meaning . And in- deed the name of epigram - meaning " writing upon , an inscrip- tion " —is now more apt than that of maxim . The new aphorism is not engraved on any bedrock but left to flutter in thin air like smoke . Maurice Blanchot ...
... meaning . And in- deed the name of epigram - meaning " writing upon , an inscrip- tion " —is now more apt than that of maxim . The new aphorism is not engraved on any bedrock but left to flutter in thin air like smoke . Maurice Blanchot ...
Contents
The Golden Age of Aphorism | 3 |
Blaise Pascal | 26 |
Deconstruction | 56 |
Copyright | |
3 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
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