Seductive Reasoning: Pluralism as the Problematic of Contemporary Literary Theory

Ellen Rooney

Published by Cornell University Press 2016

Seductive Reasoning

Pluralism as the Problematic of Contemporary Literary Theory

Ellen Rooney
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities Open Book Program

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501707001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Seductive Reasoning takes a provocative look at contemporary Anglo-American literary theory, calling into question the critical consensus on pluralism's nature and its status in literary studies. Drawing on the insights of Marxist and feminist critical theory and on the works of Althusser, Derrida, and Foucault, Rooney reads the pluralist’s invitation to join in a "dialogue" as a seductive gesture. Critics who respond find that they must seek to persuade all of their potential readers. Rooney examines pluralism as a form of logic in the work of E. D. Hirsch, as a form of ethics for Wayne Booth, as a rhetoric of persuasion in the books of Stanley Fish. For Paul de Man, Rooney argues, pluralism was a rhetoric of tropes just as it was, for Fredric Jameson, a form of politics.

Author / Editor information

Ellen Rooney is Professor of Modern Culture and Media and English at Brown University. She is coeditor of differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies and associate editor of Novel: A Forum on Fiction.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Open Access Download PDF	ix
ABBREVIATIONS OF FREQUENTLY CITED TEXTS Open Access Download PDF	xiii
INTRODUCTION Open Access Download PDF	1
1. Reading Pluralism Symptomatically Open Access Download PDF	17
2. Persuasion and the Production of Knowledge Open Access Download PDF	64
3. The Limits of Pluralism Are Not Plural Open Access Download PDF	85
4. "Not to Worry" : The Therapeutic Rhetoric of Stanley Fish Open Access Download PDF	115
5. Not Taking Sides: Reading the Rhetoric of Persuasion Open Access Download PDF	157
6. This Politics Which Is Not One Open Access Download PDF	198
EPILOGUE Open Access Download PDF	241
INDEX Open Access Download PDF	253

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Keywords: seductive reasoning; pluralism; contemporary Anglo-American literary theory; Marxist critical theory; feminist critical theory; political science; literature studies; narrative complexity

eBook

Published: November 1, 2016
ISBN: 9781501707001