The Open Boundary of History and Fiction : : A Critical Approach to the French Enlightenment / / Suzanne Gearhart.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Gearhart, Suzanne,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2019]; ©1984
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 5455
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (312 p.)

Challenging the view that a critical sense of history is missing from the Enlightenment, Suzanne Gearhart links the works of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, and Rosseau with the inquiry into the boundary between literature and history in contemporary critical discourse. She considers the theories of Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Althusser, Genette, White, de Man, and Derrida in order to develop a critical approach to fiction and history and to reveal that investigations into the fo undations of historical knowledge, and specifically into what distinguishes hsitory from fiction, were central to the Enlightenment.This book questions many assumptions basic to contemporary criticism by establishing a dialogue between major theorists and Enlightenment figures. It challenges certitudes of fiction and literature by examining the historicity of language, form, and literature itself, redefining history to show its crucial relevance to literary studies and opening historiography to the insights of literary theory.Suzanne Gearhart is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Open Boundary Of History/Fiction -- Chapter One. (Voltaire) Establishing Rationality In The Historical Text: Foucault And The Problem Of Unreason -- Chapter Two. (Voltaire) The Question Of Genre: White, Genette, And The Limits Of Formalism -- Chapter Three. (Montesquieu) The Cultural Boundaries Of History: Levi-Strauss, Structuralism, And The Paradoxical Situation Of The Outsider -- Chapter Four. (Montesquieu) Idealism And History: Althusser And The Critique Of Origins -- Chapter Five. (Conmlac, Diderot) The Limits And Conditions Of Empirical Knowledge Or The Theaters Of Perception -- Chapter Six. (Diderot) The Boundaries Of Narrative: Determinism And Narrative Theory -- Chapter Seven. (Rousseau) The Theatricality Of Nature And History: De Man, Derrida, And The Historicity Of Language -- Conclusion: History/Fiction And Contemporary Theory -- Index