Obsolete Objects in the Literary Imagination: Ruins, Relics, Rarities, Rubbish, Uninhabited Places, and Hidden TreasuresTranslated here into English for the first time is a monumental work of literary history and criticism comparable in scope and achievement to Eric Auerbach’s Mimesis. Italian critic Francesco Orlando explores Western literature’s obsession with outmoded and nonfunctional objects (ruins, obsolete machinery, broken things, trash, etc.). Combining the insights of psychoanalysis and literary-political history, Orlando traces this obsession to a turning point in history, at the end of eighteenth-century industrialization, when the functional becomes the dominant value of Western culture. Roaming through every genre and much of the history of Western literature, the author identifies distinct categories into which obsolete images can be classified and provides myriad examples. The function of literature, he concludes, is to remind us of what we have lost and what we are losing as we rush toward the future. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 27
Page 71
... Chateaubriand ( 1768-1848 ) published The Genius of Christianity , or Beauties of the Christian Religion ( Le Génie ... Chateaubriand's book , at the dawn of a restora- tion , the defense of the truth of faith matters far less than the ...
... Chateaubriand ( 1768-1848 ) published The Genius of Christianity , or Beauties of the Christian Religion ( Le Génie ... Chateaubriand's book , at the dawn of a restora- tion , the defense of the truth of faith matters far less than the ...
Page 72
... Chateaubriand's prose ) , had been recently added more violent and more rapid causes of desolation than the millenary passage of time ; and from this piece of prose — of which I quote the last paragraph —it is not so easy to guess which ...
... Chateaubriand's prose ) , had been recently added more violent and more rapid causes of desolation than the millenary passage of time ; and from this piece of prose — of which I quote the last paragraph —it is not so easy to guess which ...
Page 73
... Chateaubriand is still speaking the language of a tradition — scriptural or classical — that customarily solem- nized the effects of a nonpertinent determination of the passage of time . But in itself , the rhetorical function of the ...
... Chateaubriand is still speaking the language of a tradition — scriptural or classical — that customarily solem- nized the effects of a nonpertinent determination of the passage of time . But in itself , the rhetorical function of the ...
Page 79
... Chateaubriand's early prose ; at the time of Balzac's later works it had already penetrated the code of European fictional realism . Of course it is a capacity that makes up an important part of the usual , general meaning of the word ...
... Chateaubriand's early prose ; at the time of Balzac's later works it had already penetrated the code of European fictional realism . Of course it is a capacity that makes up an important part of the usual , general meaning of the word ...
Page 81
... Chateaubriand's and Balzac's texts respectively . The imperial baron is in a state of decay as a result of his faults and vices , because he is a ladies ' man and a squanderer . The decay has no counterpoise in any ideal values that ...
... Chateaubriand's and Balzac's texts respectively . The imperial baron is in a state of decay as a result of his faults and vices , because he is a ladies ' man and a squanderer . The decay has no counterpoise in any ideal values that ...
Contents
1 | |
17 | |
47 | |
67 | |
Twelve Categories Not to Be Too Sharply Distinguished | 206 |
Some TwentiethCentury Novels | 343 |
Praising and Disparaging the Functional | 375 |
Notes | 407 |
Index of Subjects | 481 |
Index of Names and Texts | 487 |
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Obsolete Objects in the Literary Imagination: Ruins, Relics, Rarities ... Francesco Orlando No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
adjectives already ambivalence ancien régime ancient antifunctional antiquity appears Balzac Baroque become Bibliothèque castle catachresis century chap chapter character Chateaubriand Comédie humaine contamination culture dead death desolate-disconnected Everyman's Library examples fact functional furniture genre Gothic novel historical turning point human hyperbole Ibid imagery images Jerusalem Delivered kitsch La Comédie humaine la Pléiade Les Rougon-Macquart less lines literary literature magic memory metaphor metonymy Milan modern Mondadori narrative narrator nature negative category night nonfunctional corporality novel objects Oblomov Oeuvres complètes opposition Orlando outdoing Oxford University Press palace Paris passage past Pléiade poem poetic precious-potential present pretentious-fictitious protagonist quoted refer relationship remains reminiscent-affective repressed ruins seems semantic tree semipositive category sense sinister-terrifying solemn-admonitory space sterile-noxious story supernatural symbolic tercet thematic constants theme things threadbare-grotesque tion tradition trans treasure Turin venerable-regressive walls words worn-realistic