Literary Voice

Donald Wesling is Professor of English Literature at the University of California, San Diego, Tadeusz Sawek is Professor of English Literature and Critical Theory at the English Institute, University of Silesia in Poland.

"The work draws on poetry, on bardic traditions, on philosophy and linguistics, and on literary theory to develop a compelling argument for the value of 'literary voice.'...the book stresses the social dimensions of literature, writing, and speaking. This emphasis carries political implications, especially for people whose voices have been ignored... So the book is about literary voice, about dialogues, about speaking subjects (historically situated), about 'exile,' and about the ethical implications of joining dialogues. Hence the importance of Jonah as a metaphor for resistance, language and dialogue." — Lloyd Kramer, University of North Carolina"The authors cover a huge field of literary criticism and related fields, past and present, relevant to their concern with literary 'voice' and person. Thoroughly at home in post-post-modern criticism and in deconstruction, they are aware of other scholarly work which makes it possible to assess these traditions from the outside and to identify some of their shortfalls. This book opens new and challenging perspectives."—Walter J. Ong, Saint Louis University

• Preface1.Toward a Philosophy of Literary VoicePerson as Voice: Thinking about a MetaphorThree Elements of a Comprehensive Philosophy of Literary VoiceA History/Theory of the Relation of Voice to PersonA Theory of Communicative ContextA Stylistics Based on Speech OrientationThe Speaking Subject: Our Most Comprehensive Premise as Derived from Emile Benveniste and Julia KristevaDialogism, Speaking Subject, and the Critique of Existing Theory of VoiceBefore GrammatologyAfter (and beyond) Grammatology2.Fish and Bird: Minimal ArticulationThe Idea of the CallRegional IntentionalityThe Chasm of the InarticulateBirdsongExclamations, Cries, and Other TransgressionsAa!!3.Early Modern Speaking SubjectsGrammatical and Legal Position of the Speaker: John Donne and René DescartesScenes of Parting: Donne and the Metaphysical Poets4.Bardic Voice: Vestiges of the Oral and the NationalThe Voice of the Living God in the Delphic Oracle and the Book of JonahVestiges of the Oral and the National:Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Bardic in EnglandThe Exiled Voice in Adam Mickiewicz's Pan TadeuszPhenomenology of Exile and VoiceBardic Voice and the Exiled EpilogueSilencing of VoiceSociology of the Polish FatherlandVachel Lindsay and American Bardic5.De-tonation: Another Mode of the MinimalDe-Tonation in Nineteenth-Century Theory: Friedrich NietzscheThe Passage: Jacques DerridaThe Periphery: Henri Meschonnic6.Reading the De-toned TextVoice Determinate and IndeterminatePostmodern Indetermine VoiceDe-tonationStrong De-tonationUncanny De-tonationFor the SubjectNotesIndex