"Iser is an influential figure, and aficionados will welcome the comprehensive exposition he provides here." -- Terence Cave, TLSThe pioneer of "literary anthropology," Wolfgang Iser presents a wide-
"An important transitional book, usefully summarizing the past and thoughtfully mapping out the future of a significant critic's theoretical project."- Modern Philology."There is a much greater emphas
There is a tacit assumption that interpretation comes naturally, that human beings live by constantly interpreting. In this sense, we might even rephrase Descartes by saying: We interpret, therefore w
Wolfgang Iser's study of Walter Pater (1839–94) was first published in German in 1960. It places the English critic, essayist and novelist in a philosophical tradition whose major exponents were Hegel and Coleridge, at the same time showing how Pater differed crucially from these thinkers to become representative of a late Victorian culture critically poised in transition between Romanticism and Modernism. Pater's new definitions of 'beauty' and 'style' in art, his doctrine of 'art for art's sake', his preoccupation with aesthetic existence, his fascination with periods of balance and historical transition are seen in the light of his scepticism towards all systematisation and his view of art as countering human finiteness by capturing the intensity of the moment. This important book, which remains as illuminating now as when it first appeared, will interest those interested in philosophy and aesthetics and Pater specialists alike.
Writing for students of philosophy, literary and critical theory, anthropology, and cultural history, Iser (comparative literature, U. of Konstanz, Germany and English, U. of California, Irvine) eluc
Examining five major history plays by Shakespeare, Iser (English; U. of Konstanz, Germany, and U. of California, Irvine) investigates how plays so thoroughly embedded in the politics of their own peri
This volume brings together fifteen outstanding literary theorists and philosophers to examine ways to make the unsayable—that which has been excluded by what is sayable—tangible.
These essays—which consider a wide variety of cultures from ancient Egypt to contemporary Japan— describe the conditions under which cultures that do not dominate each other may yet achieve a limited
