“The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use.” Chinua Achebe. … More
Category: Literary Theory
Modernism and Concealed Surfaces
“Profundity must be concealed. Where? On the surface.” Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), an Austrian modernist writer, is … More
Jamesian
“You after all then now don’t?” Henry James (The Sacred Fount). Henry James (1843-1916) is notorious for writing things like … More
Brooks and Poetic Language
“But the poet has no one term. Even if he had a polysyllabic technical term, the term would not provide … More
Blanchot and Poverty
What is irritating about poverty is that it is visible, and anyone who sees it thinks: You see, I’m being … More
Showing and Telling
You can hold a mimetic theory of the novel if you believe the narrational methods of fiction to resemble those … More