{"product_id":"situated-utterances-9780823224296","title":"Situated Utterances","description":"\u003cp\u003eBerger describes himself as “a reconstructed old New Critic,” and his\u003cbr\u003epublications over the past fifty years have centered on investigations of the\u003cbr\u003eways in which texts represent both themselves and their situations of utterance.\u003cbr\u003eThe thirteen chapters of the present book illustrate the range of his inquiry\u003cbr\u003eacross several cultures and disciplines. They also demonstrate the interpretive\u003cbr\u003erichness, the theoretical acumen, and the energetic prose that characterize the\u003cbr\u003ework of one of America’s premier “close readers.”\u003cbr\u003eSituated Utterances is divided into four parts. In Part One Berger designs an\u003cbr\u003eanalytical model of New Criticism and shows how it was dismantled during the\u003cbr\u003edecades after the Second World War. He then proposes a reconstructed model in\u003cbr\u003ewhich the practice of ironic and suspicious “close reading” may be directed toward\u003cbr\u003einteractions among bodies, texts, and countertexts in different cultural settings.\u003cbr\u003ePart Two demonstrates this practice in studies of specific works in three genres:\u003cbr\u003ethe pastoral Idylls of Theocritus, Edmund Spenser’s epic, The Faerie Queene, and\u003cbr\u003ethe Diaries of Samuel Pepys. The scope of the practice is broadened in Part Three\u003cbr\u003eto the connection between cultural representations and institutional change, a\u003cbr\u003econnection explored in four chapters that successively examine precapitalist\u003cbr\u003eforms of representation, the Old Testament, Beowulf, and the conflict between\u003cbr\u003enakedness and nudity in Christian conceptions of the body. Part Four consists\u003cbr\u003ein three chapters on Plato’s dialogues, which Berger interprets as critical of the\u003cbr\u003egeneral situation of utterance in a predominantly oral culture. He argues that\u003cbr\u003ePlato uses the resources of writing to depict the heroic pathos of a Socrates whose\u003cbr\u003emethod and message are defeated by the politics of the oral medium.\u003cbr\u003eSituated Utterances concludes with “A Conspectus of Critical Moves:\u003cbr\u003eThe Eleven-Step Program.” This is a summary account of the interpretive\u003cbr\u003estrategies put into play by the author throughout his long career.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harry Berger","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48282540933371,"sku":"9780823224296","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_5aadd59c-815e-42b5-8c21-b14ce0f61528.jpg?v=1778354451","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/situated-utterances-9780823224296","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}