The Violence of Reading: Literature and Philosophy at the Threshold of Pain expounds the scene of reading as one that produces an overwhelmed body exposed to uncontainable forms of violence. The book argues that the act of reading induces a representational instability that causes the referential function of language to collapse. This breakdown releases a type of "linguistic pain" (Scarry; Butler; Hamacher) that indicates a constitutive wounding of the reading body. The wound of language marks a rupture between linguistic reality and the phenomenal world. Exploring this rupture in various ways, the book brings together texts and genres from diverse traditions and offers close examinations of the rhetoric of masochism (Sacher-Masoch; Deleuze), the relation between reading and abuse (Nietzsche; Proust; Jelinek), the sublime experience of reading (Kant; Kafka; de Man), the "novel of the institution" (Musil; Campe), and literary suicide (Bachmann; Berryman; Okkervil River).

eBook - ePub
The Violence of Reading
Literature and Philosophy at the Threshold of Pain
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Information
Topic
PhilosophySubtopic
Literary CriticismTable of contents
- Cover
- Front Matter
- 1. Introduction: Allegories of Bleeding
- 2. Cry Me a Reader
- 3. The Promise of Oblivion
- 4. Transcendental Masochism
- 5. Sublime Sufferings
- 6. Sticks and Stones
- Back Matter
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Yes, you can access The Violence of Reading by Dominik Zechner in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Literary Criticism. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.