The Singularity of Literature

What is literature? What is the quality in a text that leads a reader to call it 'literary'? What is the 'certain way' of reading that calls into being the literary potential of a text? Why have we been unable to definitively answer these questions, and where does that leave us? Derek Attridge argues that the impossibility of definition leaves us at a beginning. From the point where literature resists definition, we can begin afresh to explore its workings. Rethinking aspects of the literary that have too long been taken for granted, this volume: considers literature's evasion from definition in light of the practice and institution of Western art; provides a rich new vocabulary for discussions of the literary, reworking such terms as invention, singularity, otherness, alterity, the event, performance and form; returns literature to the realm of ethics, and argues the ethical value of the literary institution to a culture; demonstrates how a new understanding of the literary might be applied in a 'responsible', creative mode of reading. The Singularity of Literature is a brilliant contribution to the theory of literature.

德里克·阿特里奇（Derek Attridge）,英国约克大学英语荣誉教授，出版有25部著作，其中包括《独特的语言》《文学作品》《文学的独特性》等。

译者简介

张进，广东外语外贸大学“云山杰出学者”、博士生导师，兰州大学教授，美国康奈尔大学访问学者，从事文艺美学和比较文化研究。入选“教育部新世纪优秀人才支持计划”，担任中国中外文艺理论学会常务理事、外国文论与比较诗学研究会副秘书长等学术职务，是国家社科基金重大项目“丝路审美文化中外互通问题研究”首席专家、“马克思主义理论研究与建设工程重点教材”《美学原理》编写组成员、“国家精品课程”《文学概论》主持人和国际期刊International Journal of Humanities Studies主编。出版著作9部，译著2部，发表论文百余篇。

董国俊，文学博士，甘肃农业大学人文学院副教授，美国加州大学伯...

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