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Chapter 7 - Johnson and Time

from Part IV - Time, Truth and History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2023

Philip Smallwood
Affiliation:
Birmingham City University
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Summary

The theme of Time is the philosophical issue of this chapter – the perplexity of how we can at once exist in time and observe time as it flows “over” our heads, or “before us” as a stream. Johnson shares an ambition to disentangle such problems with philosophers. But the need to mark time as a self-accounting is an emotional determinant of Johnson. Johnson’s reckoning is connected to life’s possibilities and limits, to his religion, to the pleasures of literature and to his experience of writers whose work seemed so much longer than it was. Johnson is a literary artist on time; his words have philosophical value and effect; but his treatment recalls the metaphorical temper of poetry. Johnson allows us access to a consciousness partitioned off by the specializations of philosophy and folds us back into our own consciousness. He gives us an experience of what it means to be in time and out of time as a shared condition. This is elusive, ironic, comic and tragic; it is one and indivisible, as a function of General Nature, indefinable because universal.

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Chapter
Information
The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
Forms of Artistry and Thought
, pp. 129 - 142
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Johnson and Time
  • Philip Smallwood, Birmingham City University
  • Book: The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
  • Online publication: 07 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009369992.013
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  • Johnson and Time
  • Philip Smallwood, Birmingham City University
  • Book: The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
  • Online publication: 07 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009369992.013
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Johnson and Time
  • Philip Smallwood, Birmingham City University
  • Book: The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
  • Online publication: 07 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009369992.013
Available formats
×