Samuel JohnsonHarvard University Press, 1998 - 372 pages He was a servant to the public, a writer for hire. He was a hero, an author adding to the glory of his nation. But can a writer be both hack and hero? The career of Samuel Johnson, recounted here by Lawrence Lipking, proves that the two can be one. And it further proves, in its enduring interest for readers, that academic fashions today may be a bit hasty in pronouncing the "death of the author." |
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... reason to suspect any definition that privileges the author as original creator , the source or first cause of the work . Works can have many sources , and authors themselves are created . From this point of view , the ques- tion of how ...
... reason is always reason ; they have an intrinsick and unalterable value ; and constitute that intellec- tual gold which defies destruction . " 38 As any modern student might note , the value of gold is not intrinsic or unalterable , and ...
... reason . She wears a thousand dresses , and in all is pleasing . " 23. Rambler 123 , Works 4 : 291 , 295 . 24. Works 16 : 247. The partiality toward wit presumably represents not only Johnson's own choice but also his portrait of Hester ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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