No Island Is an Island: Four Glances at English Literature in a World Perspective (Italian Academy Lectures)

Brand: Columbia University Press

Binding: hardcover

Number Of Pages: 121

Release Date: 14-11-2000

Part Number: 14 illus

Details: In No Island Is an Island an internationally renowned historian approaches four works of English literature from unexpected angles. Following in the footsteps of a sixteenth-century Spanish bishop we gain a fresh view of Thomas More's Utopia. Comparing Bayle's Dictionary with Tristram Shandy we suddenly enter into Laurence Sterne's mind. A seemingly narrow dispute among Elizabethan critics for and against rhyme turns into an early debate on English national identity. Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Bottle Imp" throws a new light on Bronislaw Malinowsky's attempts to discover meaning in the "kula" trading system among the Trobriand Islanders. Throughout, Ginzburg's inquiry is informed by his unique microhistorical sensibility, his attention to minute detail, and his extraordinary synthesizing imagination.

EAN: 9780231116282

Package Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches

Languages: English