When Words Lose Their Meaning: Constitutions and Reconstitutions of Language, Character, and CommunityUniversity of Chicago Press, 2012 M12 21 - 394 pages Through fresh readings of texts ranging from Homer's Iliad, Swift's Tale of a Tub, and Austen's Emma through the United States Constitution and McCulloch v. Maryland, James Boyd White examines the relationship between an individual mind and its language and culture as well as the "textual community" established between writer and audience. These striking textual analyses develop a rhetoric—a "way of reading" that can be brought to any text but that, in broader terms, becomes a way of learning that can shape the reader's life. "In this ambitious and demanding work of literary criticism, James Boyd White seeks to communicate 'a sense of reading in a new and different way.' . . . [White's] marriage of lawyerly acumen and classically trained literary sensibility—equally evident in his earlier work, The Legal Imagination—gives the best parts of When Words Lose Their Meaning a gravity and moral earnestness rare in the pages of contemporary literary criticism."—Roger Kimball, American Scholar "James Boyd White makes a state-of-the-art attempt to enrich legal theory with the insights of modern literary theory. Of its kind, it is a singular and standout achievement. . . . [White's] selections span the whole range of legal, literary, and political offerings, and his writing evidences a sustained and intimate experience with these texts. Writing with natural elegance, White manages to be insightful and inciteful. Throughout, his timely book is energized by an urgent love of literature and law and their liberating potential. His passion and sincerity are palpable."—Allan C. Hutchinson, Yale Law Journal "Undeniably a unique and significant work. . . . When Words Lose Their Meaning is a rewarding book by a distinguished legal scholar. It is a showcase for the most interesting sort of inter-disciplinary work: the kind that brings together from traditionally separate fields not so much information as ideas and approaches."—R. B. Kershner, Jr., Georgia Review |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 87
Page x
... questions grows naturally out of another , and discoveries at any level affect conclusions at the others ; indeed , I think it is impossible to pursue one kind of question without at least implicitly addressing the others as well . This ...
... questions grows naturally out of another , and discoveries at any level affect conclusions at the others ; indeed , I think it is impossible to pursue one kind of question without at least implicitly addressing the others as well . This ...
Page xii
... question must be asked what these texts have to say to us , situated as we are in our world as it actually is . I am not saying that the critic or classicist should become a lawyer ; I am suggesting that a full fidelity to the texts at ...
... question must be asked what these texts have to say to us , situated as we are in our world as it actually is . I am not saying that the critic or classicist should become a lawyer ; I am suggesting that a full fidelity to the texts at ...
Page 6
... question will be elaborated by being broken down into two others : What kind of relationship does this writer ... questions as these have objective answers . The ways we have of claiming , establishing , and modifying meaning are fur ...
... question will be elaborated by being broken down into two others : What kind of relationship does this writer ... questions as these have objective answers . The ways we have of claiming , establishing , and modifying meaning are fur ...
Page 7
... questions would be asked of the event in each situation ; the story would be told in different terms ; and different ... question is : What can be done about it ? Can the speaker make a new language , re- make an old one , or find a way ...
... questions would be asked of the event in each situation ; the story would be told in different terms ; and different ... question is : What can be done about it ? Can the speaker make a new language , re- make an old one , or find a way ...
Page 8
... question , then , is not only how one can recon- stitute one's language but how one can learn from it and , in the process , reconstitute one's character and one's life . These are questions not only for actors within these texts but ...
... question , then , is not only how one can recon- stitute one's language but how one can learn from it and , in the process , reconstitute one's character and one's life . These are questions not only for actors within these texts but ...
Contents
3 | |
24 | |
Thucydides History of His World | 59 |
Platos Gorgias | 93 |
Swifts A Tale of a Tub | 114 |
Johnsons Rambler Essays | 138 |
The Language of Friendship in Jane Austens Emma | 163 |
The Constitution of Language and Community in Burkes Reflections | 192 |
The Possibilities of American Law | 231 |
10 An Afterword | 275 |
Bibliographies and Notes | 286 |
Index | 363 |
Other editions - View all
When Words Lose Their Meaning: Constitutions and Reconstitutions of Language ... James Boyd White No preview available - 1985 |
Common terms and phrases
Achaeans Achilles Agamemnon agathon aischron Athenians Athens authority become British Constitution Burke Burke's called Callicles Camarina central character Chryses claim conversation Corcyra Corcyrean Corinth course creates criticism culture of argument defined dialectic dialogue Diodotus discourse Emma Emma's Epidamnus equality essays establish example experience fact feeling force Frank Churchill friendship give Gorgias Greek guage Harriet heroic Homer human Iliad imagine Jane Austen Johnson judge judgment justice kakon kind Knightley language Marshall meaning Melian dialogue Melians ment mind moral Mytilene nature Number object Odysseus offers one's Patroclus perhaps Pericles persuade Plato poem political Polus Priam principle question Rambler reading reason reconstitution relation response rhetoric Samuel Johnson sense social Socrates Sparta speak speaker speech statement Swift talk teach things thought Thucydides tion truth ture understanding University Press voice words writing