Reading Words into Worlds
Phenomenological Mimesis of Givenness in the Novel
- 206 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Reading Words into Worlds asks how it is that reading a novel can feel in some ways like being-in-a-world. The book explores how novels give themselves to readers in ways that mimetically resemble our phenomenological reception of given beings in reality. McReynolds refers to this process as phenomenological mimesis of givenness, and he draws on the phenomenological philosophy of Husserl, Heidegger, and Jean-Luc Marion to explore how masterful novels can make reading ink marks on a page feel like seeing things, feeling things, and meeting (even loving) others. McReynolds blends rigorous phenomenological study with a personable style, first laying out his theory in detail and then applying that theory through close studies of his reading experiences of four British realist masterpieces: Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Austen's Northanger Abbey, Eliot's Middlemarch, and Hardy's Jude the Obscure. Ultimately, this book offers a grounded phenomenology of novel-reading, illuminating what gives novels such power to not only thrill readers—but to change them.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Endorsements Page
- Half-Title Page
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- List of Figures and Table
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Ontological Origin of the Novel
- 2 The Visible Hand of Daniel Defoe: The Phenomenological Mimesis of God-Givenness in Robinson Crusoe
- 3 Reading Austen's Reality: The Phenomenological Mimesis of Authorial-Givenness in Northanger Abbey
- 4 Being-As Bulstrode: The Phenomenological Mimesis of Self-Givenness in Middlemarch
- 5 Hardy's Anthropomorphous Forces: The Phenomenological Mimesis of Cruel Givenness in Jude the Obscure
- Conclusion: The Fruits of Phenomenological Mimesis
- Bibliography
- Index