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 xi
... speak , you define a character for yourself and for at least one other - your audience - and make a community at least between the two of you ; and you do this in a language that is of necessity provided to you by others and modified in ...
... speak , you define a character for yourself and for at least one other - your audience - and make a community at least between the two of you ; and you do this in a language that is of necessity provided to you by others and modified in ...
Page xii
... speak intelligibly myself , still try- ing to understand claims of meaning made against a background of tradi- tion and the tests of experience . Indeed , in its hunger to connect the general with the particular , in its metaphorical ...
... speak intelligibly myself , still try- ing to understand claims of meaning made against a background of tradi- tion and the tests of experience . Indeed , in its hunger to connect the general with the particular , in its metaphorical ...
Page 4
... speak as he speaks . Even worse than this imagined isolation for such a reader would be the threat , in some sense the certainty , that to live in this world would lead to central changes within the self . One cannot maintain for- ever ...
... speak as he speaks . Even worse than this imagined isolation for such a reader would be the threat , in some sense the certainty , that to live in this world would lead to central changes within the self . One cannot maintain for- ever ...
Page 6
... speak to another , he must speak a lan- guage that has its existence outside himself , in the world he inhabits . If he is to be understood , he must use the language of his audience . This language gives him his terms of social and ...
... speak to another , he must speak a lan- guage that has its existence outside himself , in the world he inhabits . If he is to be understood , he must use the language of his audience . This language gives him his terms of social and ...
Page 7
... speak in a satisfactory way about himself and his experience . It happens also to the interlocutors in Plato's Gorgias , who are severely distressed when they are forced to face the contradictions among the platitudes by which they ...
... speak in a satisfactory way about himself and his experience . It happens also to the interlocutors in Plato's Gorgias , who are severely distressed when they are forced to face the contradictions among the platitudes by which they ...
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