Across the "between". Review article
Review of Franco Moretti, "The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature", and "Distant Reading". The latter is a collection of previously published essays all arguing for the expansion of literary study beyond the canon and close reading; by republishing them in tandem with &quo...
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| Published in: | New Left review no. 86; pp. 151 - 158 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
01-03-2014
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Review of Franco Moretti, "The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature", and "Distant Reading". The latter is a collection of previously published essays all arguing for the expansion of literary study beyond the canon and close reading; by republishing them in tandem with "The Bourgeois" - a cultural anthropology rather than an intellectual history - Moretti is asserting that they belong to a common project bridging literature and history. This review nevertheless finds Moretti at his best when closely reading a canonical text - "The Communist Manifesto" - and is sceptical about whether digital research tools can really tell us things we didn't know already. Pursuing issues of discovery, sampling methodology and explanation, the review finds unresolved problems of mediation at the heart of Moretti's project. (Quotes from original text) |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
| ISSN: | 0028-6060 |