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 36
Page 32
... palace in the evening ; he wants to surprise her in the middle of the night and drag the secret out of her . This is what we make out indistinctly , in the half - dark interior : Hermann ran up the stairs , opened the door of the ...
... palace in the evening ; he wants to surprise her in the middle of the night and drag the secret out of her . This is what we make out indistinctly , in the half - dark interior : Hermann ran up the stairs , opened the door of the ...
Page 34
... palace displays by night , although it includes true - to - life motives and chronological references , is no less qualified to leave the door half - open to the indeterminable spaces and times of fear , and to suggest its ...
... palace displays by night , although it includes true - to - life motives and chronological references , is no less qualified to leave the door half - open to the indeterminable spaces and times of fear , and to suggest its ...
Page 89
... palace , and we plunge into meditation . We anticipate the ravages of time , and our imagination scatters over the earth the very buildings in which we live . All at once , solitude and silence reign around us . We alone remain , of an ...
... palace , and we plunge into meditation . We anticipate the ravages of time , and our imagination scatters over the earth the very buildings in which we live . All at once , solitude and silence reign around us . We alone remain , of an ...
Page 91
... palace With walls of diamonds and turquoise , Having heard so much racket being made : When God willed , we finally got there : We entered through a postern gate , Buried in nettles and briars . There ' twas best to leave the beaten ...
... palace With walls of diamonds and turquoise , Having heard so much racket being made : When God willed , we finally got there : We entered through a postern gate , Buried in nettles and briars . There ' twas best to leave the beaten ...
Page 92
... palace made of precious stones is joking hyperbole inverted positively , and it is immediately straightened into the negative while remaining hyperbole set in metaphor . We may say that the door of the house was actually like a ...
... palace made of precious stones is joking hyperbole inverted positively , and it is immediately straightened into the negative while remaining hyperbole set in metaphor . We may say that the door of the house was actually like a ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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