Topographies

by Miller, J. Hillis

• ISBN13: 9780804723787
• ISBN10: 0804723788
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-01-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

This book investigates the function of topographical names and descriptions in a variety of narratives, poems, and philosophical or theoretical texts, primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries, but including also Plato and the Bible. Topics include the initiating efficacy of speech acts, ethical responsibility, political or legislative power, the translation of theory from one topographical location to another, the way topographical delineations can function as parable or allegory, and the relation of personification to landscape.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Philosophy, Literature, Topography: Heidegger and Hardy	p. 9
Face to Face: Faces, Places, and Ethics in Plato	p. 57
Laying Down the Law in Literature: Kleist	p. 80
Sam Weller's Valentine: Dickens	p. 105
Temporal Topographies: Tennyson's Tears	p. 134
Naming, Doing, Placing: Hopkins	p. 150
Nietzsche in Basel: Changing Places in Thus Spoke Zarathustra	p. 169
Ideology and Topography: Faulkner	p. 192
Slipping Vaulting Crossing: Heidegger	p. 216
The Ethics of Topography: Stevens	p. 255
Derrida's Topographies	p. 291
Border Crossings, Translating Theory: Ruth	p. 316
Notes	p. 341
Index	p. 369
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