Samuel Johnson: The Life of an AuthorHarvard University Press, 2009 M07 1 - 384 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." |
From inside the book
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... thought attacks the self - absorption of righteous men who do not notice the damage they cause to women , minorities , and the underclass , and who erect a barricade of authorship in order to keep other people out . At an extreme , the ...
... thought that mold them or to the languages within which they are imprisoned , and persons are not agents or subjects but subject- positions . Hence the name of an " author " has no meaning , according to Foucault , except as an ...
... thoughts and words , which a trans- lator has not " ( Dryden ) . At times it does not . The uncertainty extends to another difficult question : just what does an author create ? " Any thing " does not seem very specific . A " beginner ...
... thought " or mode of discourse is what drove Foucault to ask , " What is an Author ? " In spite of his effort to find other ways of speaking , the problem per- sists . An author , from a reader's point of view , may be seen as a con ...
... thought and behavior in each new dilemma ; the literary critic sifts out the inessential circumstances of a piece of writing in order to es- timate its kernel of genius and truth . Similarly , in Johnson's terms , knowing an author ...
Contents
11 | |
34 | |
48 | |
Preferments Gate The Vanity of Human Wishes | 86 |
Man of Letters A Dictionary of the English Language | 103 |
The Living World The Rambler | 145 |
Reclaiming Imagination Rasselas | 173 |
The Theater of Mind The Plays of William Shakespeare | 198 |
Journeying Westward Political Writings A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
Touching the Shore The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
The Life to Come Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Abbreviation | 307 |
Notes | 309 |
Index | 363 |