The Incomprehensibility Prize, given to the author who best succeeds in separating word and meaning, is now offering a subsidiary award: the Incomprehensible Catalogue Prize. The first entries come from the Literarure & Culture section of a recent OUP (US) catalogue. Here, it is not the author of the book who carries off the trophy but the writer of the catalogue copy. Fictions of Autonomy by Andrew Goldstone is a likely front-runner:
A second entrant from the same catalogue is Structures of Appearing, a study of allegory, by Brenda Machosky. The author
Before dashing out to buy either or both of these books, first cast your vote.
TLS, 17 Μαΐου 2013
Disputing the prevailing skepticism about autonomy, Goldtone shows that the pursuit of relative independence within society is modernism’s distinctive way of relating to its contexts … Drawing on Bourdieu’s sociology, formalist reading, and historical contextualization, this book demonstrates the importance of autonomy to modernist themes as varied as domestic service, artistic aging, expat life, and non-referentiality.
A second entrant from the same catalogue is Structures of Appearing, a study of allegory, by Brenda Machosky. The author
argues that allegory itself must appear allegorically and thus cannot be forced into a logos-centered metaphysical system. She … argues that the allegorical image is not a likeness to anything, not a subjective reflection, but an absolute otherness that becomes accessible by virtue of its unique structure.
Before dashing out to buy either or both of these books, first cast your vote.
TLS, 17 Μαΐου 2013