Subjectivity Effect in Western Literary Tradition ― Essays Toward the Release of Shakespeare's Will

Joel Fineman was considered one of the most brilliant literary critics of hisgeneration, gifted in doing what the Russian formalists called "making strange." His essays areamong the strongest demonstrations of how structures -- whether linguistic, visual, or architectural-- generate large and elaborate systems of meaning. Using examples drawn from literature -- Chaucer,Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde -- Fineman creates parables of how language has come to constitute themodern subject (ourselves) as a set of its "effects."Combining formidable learning with theoreticalsophistication that is at once philosophical, linguistic, and psychoanalytical, Fineman draws fromthe most familiar work verbal details that lead to startling new interpretations, challenging Freudor making original applications of Lacan. The repercussion of his writings on theory and onnonliterary discourse is considerable, particularly among critics engaged in showing how artisticpractice can be understood, structurally, to signify.Joel Fineman was Professor of EnglishLiterature at the University of California at Berkeley.The Essays: The Structure of AllegoricalDesire. The Significance of Literature: The Importance of Being Earnest. "The Pas de Calais": Freud,the Transference, and the Sense of Woman's Humor. The History of the Anecdote: Fiction and Fiction.Shakespeare's "Perjur'd Eye". The Turn of the Shrew. The Sound of 0 in Othello: The Real of theTragedy of Desire. Shakespeare's Will: The Temporality of Rape. Shakespeare's Ear.

Joel Fineman was Professor of English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley.