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Introduction

The Possibility of Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2024

Peter Boxall
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

This introduction offers a theoretical model for reading the relation between the conditions that determine the possibility of literary expression, and those possibilities that literature itself invents. It is in the relation between these two forms of possibility, the introduction argues, that the politics of literary form resides.

The last two decades of critical thinking have seen a quite radical shift in our understanding of this relationship. The introduction traces these shifts, and places the essays collected in this volume (written over that two decade period) in the context of such theoretical and political transformations. The passage of literary thinking in the current century, the introduction argues, requires a new critical understanding of literary possibility, which it is the task of these essays to perform.

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Chapter
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The Possibility of Literature
The Novel and the Politics of Form
, pp. 1 - 26
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Introduction
  • Peter Boxall, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Possibility of Literature
  • Online publication: 10 October 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009314305.001
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  • Introduction
  • Peter Boxall, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Possibility of Literature
  • Online publication: 10 October 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009314305.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

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.

  • Introduction
  • Peter Boxall, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Possibility of Literature
  • Online publication: 10 October 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009314305.001
Available formats
×