Name: Genres in Discourse
SKU: 19187048
Price: 2324.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Tzvetan Todorov
ISBN: 9780521349994

Type

Physical Book

Author

Tzvetan Todorov

Translated by

Catherine Porter

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Year

1990

Language

English

Pages

148

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.4x0.9 cm

Weight

0.23 kg.

ISBN

0521349990

ISBN13

9780521349994

Synopsis "Genres in Discourse "

This is a collection in translation of recent essays by Tzvetan Todorov, one of the most eminent of today's literary critics. The essays concentrate on the idea of genre, literary or otherwise, and asks such questions as: What is literature? What is genre? Which are the major literary genres? In the first section, Todorov proposes definitions for the notions of literature, discourse, and genre. Following is a general discussion of the two principal literary genres, fiction and poetry. Finally, in the third section of essays, Todorov examines individual authors as case studies: among them Poe, Dostoyevsky, Baudelaire, Conrad, and James.

Tzvetan Todorov

(Author)

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Tzvetan Todorov (Sofia, 1939 – Paris, 2017) was a Bulgarian-born French linguist, philosopher, historian of ideas, and literary theorist. Professor at the CNRS in Paris and visiting scholar at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia, he began his work in literary theory with Theory of Literature of the Russian Formalists (1965) and Literature and Signification (1967), pioneering texts in semiotics and narratology. From the 80s, he shifted towards historical and ethical essays, reflecting on the Enlightenment and totalitarianisms.

Among his most influential titles are The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other (1982), Facing the Limit (1991; Facing the Extreme), and The Abuses of Memory (1995). His exploration of evil and memory in the 20th century is summarized in Memory of Evil, Temptation of Good (2000) and The Totalitarian Experience (2010). These works, of an essayistic and historiographic genre, did not receive specific literary awards, but Todorov was honored with the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in 2008 and received distinctions such as the Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

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