How Words Make Things Happen

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Poetry History & Criticism, Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts
Cover of the book How Words Make Things Happen by David Bromwich, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Bromwich ISBN: 9780192581921
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: March 28, 2019
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: David Bromwich
ISBN: 9780192581921
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: March 28, 2019
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

Sooner or later, our words take on meanings other than we intended. How Words Make Things Happen suggests that the conventional idea of persuasive rhetoric (which assumes a speaker's control of calculated effects) and the modern idea of literary autonomy (which assumes that 'poetry makes nothing happen') together have produced a misleading account of the relations between words and human action. Words do make things happen. But they cannot be counted on to produce the result they intend. This volume studies examples from a range of speakers and writers and offers close readings of their words. Chapter 1 considers the theory of speech-acts propounded by J.L. Austin. 'Speakers Who Convince Themselves' is the subject of chapter 2, which interprets two soliloquies by Shakespeare's characters and two by Milton's Satan. The oratory of Burke and Lincoln come in for extended treatment in chapter 3, while chapter 4 looks at the rival tendencies of moral suasion and aestheticism in the poetry of Yeats and Auden. The final chapter, a cause of controversy when first published in the London Review of Books, supports a policy of unrestricted free speech against contemporary proposals of censorship. Since we cannot know what our own words are going to do, we have no standing to justify the banishment of one set of words in favour of another.

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

Sooner or later, our words take on meanings other than we intended. How Words Make Things Happen suggests that the conventional idea of persuasive rhetoric (which assumes a speaker's control of calculated effects) and the modern idea of literary autonomy (which assumes that 'poetry makes nothing happen') together have produced a misleading account of the relations between words and human action. Words do make things happen. But they cannot be counted on to produce the result they intend. This volume studies examples from a range of speakers and writers and offers close readings of their words. Chapter 1 considers the theory of speech-acts propounded by J.L. Austin. 'Speakers Who Convince Themselves' is the subject of chapter 2, which interprets two soliloquies by Shakespeare's characters and two by Milton's Satan. The oratory of Burke and Lincoln come in for extended treatment in chapter 3, while chapter 4 looks at the rival tendencies of moral suasion and aestheticism in the poetry of Yeats and Auden. The final chapter, a cause of controversy when first published in the London Review of Books, supports a policy of unrestricted free speech against contemporary proposals of censorship. Since we cannot know what our own words are going to do, we have no standing to justify the banishment of one set of words in favour of another.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book Philosophy of Religion: A Very Short Introduction by David Bromwich
Cover of the book The Poverty of Conceptual Truth by David Bromwich
Cover of the book The Sexual Offences Referencer by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Heroes or Villains? by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Pandas and People by David Bromwich
Cover of the book King Solomon's Mines by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Staying Power by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Husserl's Legacy by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Human Rights and European Law by David Bromwich
Cover of the book One Century of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology by David Bromwich
Cover of the book French Law by David Bromwich
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Family Law: A Very Short Introduction by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Why Only Humans Weep by David Bromwich
Cover of the book Investigative Interviewing by David Bromwich
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