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 80
Page ix
... present at the birth of the great novel . He has written a moving , two - part memoir of this formative , if also difficult relationship , as well as an indispens- able critical study of Lampedusa's masterpiece : Ricordo di Lampedusa ...
... present at the birth of the great novel . He has written a moving , two - part memoir of this formative , if also difficult relationship , as well as an indispens- able critical study of Lampedusa's masterpiece : Ricordo di Lampedusa ...
Page 2
... present in the materials that I collected . Rather , posing the question about why the thematic constants I was dealing with were often articulated in lists is itself a good start at defining these constants and understanding the common ...
... present in the materials that I collected . Rather , posing the question about why the thematic constants I was dealing with were often articulated in lists is itself a good start at defining these constants and understanding the common ...
Page 5
... present book can be spared the elaborate conceptual burden of the entire cycle, but it is necessary to specify a few of the theoretical implications that the present book has inher- ited. Although this general postulate does not lose ...
... present book can be spared the elaborate conceptual burden of the entire cycle, but it is necessary to specify a few of the theoretical implications that the present book has inher- ited. Although this general postulate does not lose ...
Page 8
... present functionality presupposes another that has been lost—thus recouping and lending value to the nonfunctional. As there will be a great many concrete examples, I shall keep this demonstration short. For the time being I will use ...
... present functionality presupposes another that has been lost—thus recouping and lending value to the nonfunctional. As there will be a great many concrete examples, I shall keep this demonstration short. For the time being I will use ...
Page 15
... presents itself [ at first sight ] as ' an immense accumulation of commodities . " " s Here literature is certainly not spoken of , and the notion of immensity or monstrosity is not metaphorical , although it lends visual concreteness ...
... presents itself [ at first sight ] as ' an immense accumulation of commodities . " " s Here literature is certainly not spoken of , and the notion of immensity or monstrosity is not metaphorical , although it lends visual concreteness ...
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