Overview
- Traces the ongoing debate between literary realism and experimentalism from the nineteenth century through the twentieth century
- Sets out to reexamine and define the purpose and function of literature in society, including its political merit
- Incorporates a wide range of past and previous texts including works by Nietzsche, Brecht, Sartre, Adorno, and Coetzee
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature (PMEL)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Naturalists and Nietzscheans: Codifying Clarity and Confusion
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Ambiguities of Activism: Complicating Clarity and Confusion
Keywords
About this book
What should literature with political aims look like? This book traces two rival responses to this question, one prizing clarity and the other confusion, which have dominated political aesthetics since the late nineteenth century. Revisiting recurrences of the avant-garde experimentalism versus critical realism debates from the twentieth century, Geoffrey A. Baker highlights the often violent reductions at work in earlier debates. Instead of prizing one approach over the other, as many participants in those debates have done, Baker focuses on the manner in which the debate itself between these approaches continues to prove productive and enabling for politically engaged writers. This book thus offers a way beyond the simplistic polarity of realism vs. anti-realism in a study that is focused on influential strands of thought in England, France, and Germany and that covers well-known authors such as Zola, Nietzsche, Arnold, Mann, Brecht, Sartre, Adorno, Lukács, Beauvoir, Morrison, and Coetzee.
Reviews
“In this wide-ranging study, Geoffrey A. Baker traces the impact of two competing theories of literature in its relation to social and political reality from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. He identifies the origins of a representational ‘aesthetic of clarity’ with Emile Zola and an anti-representational ‘aesthetic of confusion’ with Friedrich Nietzsche. By posing the question of how literature leads to knowledge, this book offers a fresh perspective on several major figures of modern literature.” (Mary Ann Frese Witt, Professor Emerita of French and Italian, North Carolina State University, USA, and editor of “Nietzsche and the Rebirth of the Tragic”)
“This book traces a critical dyad that structures much of the great literature of the last century and half, yet one that is rarely taken seriously in both its terms. Proponents of ‘clarity’ (exemplified by Zola and later Sartre) as well as those of ‘confusion’ (think Nietzsche and Adorno) risk being considered either in splendid isolation or in mere opposition. Baker braids them together masterfully, demonstrating both their bold promise and insufficiency—and perhaps above all their interdependence. Focusing not only on acknowledged classics of politically committed literature but also on more recent works by Toni Morrison, Peter Handke, and J. M. Coetzee, he presents complicated epistemological matters with enviable clarity, and offers fresh readings in every chapter.” (William Collins Donahue, John J. Cavanaugh Professor of the Humanities, University of Notre Dame, USA)
“What should literature with political aims look like? This book traces two rival responses to this question, one prizing clarity and the other confusion, which have dominated political aesthetics since the late nineteenth century. Revisiting recurrences of the avant-garde experimentalism versus critical realism debates from the twentieth century, Geoffrey A. Baker highlights the often violent reductions at work in earlier debates. Instead of prizing one approach over the other, as many participants in those debates have done, Baker focuses on the manner in which the debate itself between these approaches continues to prove productive and enabling for politically engaged writers. This book thus offers a way beyond the simplistic polarity of realism vs. anti-realism in a study that is focused on influential strands of thought in England, France, and Germany and that covers well-known authors such as Zola, Nietzsche, Arnold, Mann, Brecht, Sartre, Adorno, Lukács, Beauvoir, Morrison, and Coetzee.” (Geoffrey A. Baker is Associate Professor of Humanities (Literature) at Yale-NUS College, Singapore. He is the author of “Realism’s Empire”, in addition to articles on political aesthetics, realism, and other topics)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Geoffrey A. Baker is Associate Professor of Humanities (Literature) at Yale-NUS College, Singapore. He is the author of Realism’s Empire, in addition to articles on political aesthetics, realism, and other topics.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Aesthetics of Clarity and Confusion
Book Subtitle: Literature and Engagement since Nietzsche and the Naturalists
Authors: Geoffrey A. Baker
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42171-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-42170-4Published: 27 December 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-82517-5Published: 07 July 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-42171-1Published: 22 December 2016
Series ISSN: 2634-6478
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6486
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 279
Topics: Comparative Literature, Literary Theory, European Literature