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Cover image of Is Literary History Possible?
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Is Literary History Possible?

David Perkins

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Is Literary History Possible? is a landmark study of the thinking underlying recent theory about literary history. Through analysis of particular literary histories—most of them contemporary works—Perkins elaborates on two fundamental problmes that arise in the writing of literary history: the contradictions inherent in organizing, structuring, and presenting the subject; and the "always unsuccessful" attempt of literary histories to explain the development of the literature they describe.

Reviews

Reviews

The highest achievement of Perkin's book comes in the clarity he brings to the contestation, the dignified, serious, judicious, and generous rationality he bestows on the subject. He acknowledges the damaging confusion bedeviling humanities at the moment without enlarging it, and goes a long way in this book to showing a way out of the worst excesses the contestation has engendered.

Perkins writes clearly and concisely. Like René Wellek and M. H. Abrams, he has an admirable gift for making clear the underlying assumptions of many different writers.

Profoundly searching, yet written with grace and lucidity. A distinguished historian and critic illuminates and answers one of the major problems of literary study in a work that will become and remain a classic.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5.375
x
8.5
Pages
208
ISBN
9780801847158
Author Bio
Featured Contributor

David Perkins

David Perkins is Marquand Professor of English and American Literature at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including the two-volume History of Modern Poetry, and editor of Teaching Literature: What Is Needed Now? and Theoretical Issues in Literary History.