Reading Style

A Life in Sentences

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Theory, Books & Reading, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book Reading Style by Jenny Davidson, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jenny Davidson ISBN: 9780231537407
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: June 24, 2014
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Jenny Davidson
ISBN: 9780231537407
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: June 24, 2014
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

A professor, critic, and insatiable reader, Jenny Davidson investigates the passions that drive us to fall in love with certain sentences over others and the larger implications of our relationship with writing style. At once playful and serious, immersive and analytic, her book shows how style elicits particular kinds of moral judgments and subjective preferences that turn reading into a highly personal and political act.

Melding her experiences as reader and critic, Davidson opens new vistas onto works by Jane Austen, Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Pynchon; adds richer dimension to critiques of W. G. Sebald, Alan Hollinghurst, Thomas Bernhard, and Karl Ove Knausgaard; and allows for a sophisticated appreciation of popular fictions by Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Lionel Shriver, George Pelecanos, and Helen DeWitt. She privileges diction, syntax, point of view, and structure over plot and character, identifying the intimate mechanics that draw us in to literature's sensual frameworks and move us to feel, identify, and relate. Davidson concludes with a reading list of her favorite titles so others can share in her literary adventures and get to know better the imprint of her own reading style.

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

A professor, critic, and insatiable reader, Jenny Davidson investigates the passions that drive us to fall in love with certain sentences over others and the larger implications of our relationship with writing style. At once playful and serious, immersive and analytic, her book shows how style elicits particular kinds of moral judgments and subjective preferences that turn reading into a highly personal and political act.

Melding her experiences as reader and critic, Davidson opens new vistas onto works by Jane Austen, Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Pynchon; adds richer dimension to critiques of W. G. Sebald, Alan Hollinghurst, Thomas Bernhard, and Karl Ove Knausgaard; and allows for a sophisticated appreciation of popular fictions by Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Lionel Shriver, George Pelecanos, and Helen DeWitt. She privileges diction, syntax, point of view, and structure over plot and character, identifying the intimate mechanics that draw us in to literature's sensual frameworks and move us to feel, identify, and relate. Davidson concludes with a reading list of her favorite titles so others can share in her literary adventures and get to know better the imprint of her own reading style.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Political Categories by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Animalia Americana by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book At the End of the Street in the Shadow by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Politics Recovered by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book An All-Consuming Century by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Freedom's Right by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book The Heretic in Darwin’s Court by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Toward the Geopolitical Novel by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Reworking Race by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book A Desert Named Peace by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book The Theory That Changed Everything by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book For All My Walking by Jenny Davidson
Cover of the book Love and Forgiveness for a More Just World by Jenny Davidson
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