The Imperative to Write

Destitutions of the Sublime in Kafka, Blanchot, and Beckett

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Theory, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Cover of the book The Imperative to Write by Jeff Fort, Fordham University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jeff Fort ISBN: 9780823254705
Publisher: Fordham University Press Publication: March 3, 2014
Imprint: Fordham University Press Language: English
Author: Jeff Fort
ISBN: 9780823254705
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Publication: March 3, 2014
Imprint: Fordham University Press
Language: English

Is writing haunted by a categorical imperative? Does the Kantian sublime continue to shape the writer’s vocation, even for twentieth-century authors? What precise shape, form, or figure does this residue of sublimity take in the fictions that follow from it—and that leave it in ruins?

This book explores these questions through readings of three authors who bear witness to an ambiguous exigency: writing as a demanding and exclusive task, at odds with life, but also a mere compulsion, a drive without end or reason, even a kind of torture. If Kafka, Blanchot, and Beckett mimic a sublime vocation in their extreme devotion to writing, they do so in full awareness that the trajectory it dictates leads not to metaphysical redemption but rather downward, into the uncanny element of fiction. As this book argues, the sublime has always been a deeply melancholy affair, even in its classical Kantian form, but it is in the attenuated speech of narrative voices progressively stripped of their resources and rewards that the true nature of this melancholy is revealed.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Is writing haunted by a categorical imperative? Does the Kantian sublime continue to shape the writer’s vocation, even for twentieth-century authors? What precise shape, form, or figure does this residue of sublimity take in the fictions that follow from it—and that leave it in ruins?

This book explores these questions through readings of three authors who bear witness to an ambiguous exigency: writing as a demanding and exclusive task, at odds with life, but also a mere compulsion, a drive without end or reason, even a kind of torture. If Kafka, Blanchot, and Beckett mimic a sublime vocation in their extreme devotion to writing, they do so in full awareness that the trajectory it dictates leads not to metaphysical redemption but rather downward, into the uncanny element of fiction. As this book argues, the sublime has always been a deeply melancholy affair, even in its classical Kantian form, but it is in the attenuated speech of narrative voices progressively stripped of their resources and rewards that the true nature of this melancholy is revealed.

More books from Fordham University Press

Cover of the book The Interval by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Resistance of the Sensible World by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Phantom Limbs by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book The Two Cultures of English by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book The Body of Property by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Talking the Walk & Walking the Talk by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Live Long and Prosper by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Words Fail by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Benjamin's Passages by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book King Alfonso VIII of Castile by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Light and Death by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book The Underside of Politics by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book The Life of Things, the Love of Things by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book The John F. Sonnett Memorial Lectures at Fordham University School of Law by Jeff Fort
Cover of the book Divine Multiplicity by Jeff Fort
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy