SterneÆs Whimsical Theatres of Language: Orality, Gesture, Literacy

by TadiT,Alexis

• ISBN13: 9780754630760
• ISBN10: 0754630765
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This study addresses the intricate links between oral culture and literate culture in the eighteenth century. Tadié traces how perceptions and representations of language move from a dominance of the spoken word to a dominance of the written word; and this is echoed in the order of the five chapters on conversation, gesture, theatre, fiction, and print.Tadié offers a reading of Sterne's works, arguing that the use of language lies at the centre of Sterne's art; he approaches this historical dimension of the texts in the context of eighteenth-century theories of language. He brings into focus the heterogeneity of Sterne's texts; and he demonstrates how Sterne's awareness for the variations of language links up with his interest in the form of the book, and with the use of all the potentialities of print.

Table of Contents

References and Abbreviations	vi
General Editor's Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
Introduction	1	(16)
1 The Rule of Conversation	17	(32)
2 The Flesh of Words	49	(28)
3 The Sight of Language	77	(32)
4 The Words of Fiction	109	(32)
5 The Paradoxes of the Book	141	(34)
Conclusion	175	(4)
Bibliography	179	(10)
Index	189