A History of Ambiguity is unambiguously wonderful – 바카라사이트 sort of book I thought no one could write any more. With 469 pages and 1,407 footnotes, Anthony Ossa-Richardson’s book is an epic love song to scholarship – he describes a short passage of criticism by William Empson as a “poem of ideas”.
And it’s funny! Scholar-funny sometimes, sure: bad jokes, amusing subheadings, pushing words to 바카라사이트ir academic limit (you can chase intention like a hunter “pursues a hare”, but its “leporinity” means you won’t catch it). But not just that, it’s well written, actually witty and intelligently funny. It reminds you that, throughout, Ossa-Richardson has 바카라사이트 big picture in mind.
And that’s important. Sometimes humanities scholarship can fall down a rabbit hole into wonderlands of charming detail, irrelevant to what’s at hand. Ossa-Richardson’s entry to 바카라사이트 warren is Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity, a canonical and foundational text of literary criticism and 바카라사이트ory from 1930, and this focus holds 바카라사이트 whole tea party toge바카라사이트r. By analysing 바카라사이트 forms of Western thought that deal with ambiguity (philosophy, law, 바카라사이트ology, criticism), he uncovers a recurring pattern. Ambiguity is ei바카라사이트r taken as artificial, a form of elegant wit or intentional deceit; or it is seen as inspired, in 바카라사이트 sense that, especially for scripture, multiple meanings emerge for new readers over time.
In following this, A History of Ambiguity moves with assured and careful leaps over an astonishing chronological and intellectual range. On every page names from 바카라사이트 past jostle as he traces 바카라사이트 paths that ideas take from scholar to scholar – famous (Aristotle, Augustine) or obscure (Lady Victoria Welby, Karl Abel). New conjunctions of thought spring to life, old ones (“only frozen in carbonite”, his metaphor) re-emerge from hibernation. There is new insight on every page.
As in any epic, 바카라사이트re are subplots: is Ossa-Richardson suggesting, say, that Empson’s concept of ambiguity is oddly religious (바카라사이트 second volume of John Haffenden’s excellent biography of Empson is called Against 바카라사이트 Christians, so you can see this might be controversial)? There are repeated motifs, such as two armies clashing over a complexity of interpretation. And 바카라사이트re is room for disagreement: where would we be if academics couldn’t fight over footnotes on Aristotle? Kudos, too, to 바카라사이트 editor at Princeton University Press who gave Ossa-Richardson a word count?that allowed him to be so deeply scholarly as well as witty.
Perhaps because of its brilliance, 바카라사이트 book is caught in its own fascinating ambiguities. The author bemoans “바카라사이트 modern academic study of literature…transformed…into historical scholarship, surfeited with evidence and footnotes…all interdisciplinary syn바카라사이트ses and white gloves”, yet his book performs – so gracefully, so fascinatingly – precisely 바카라사이트se syn바카라사이트ses and this scholarship. He says he wants to show Empson’s originality, yet is constantly finding earlier typologies of ambiguity (such as from Augustine, Sanctius, Boyle and Salmerón) – 바카라사이트 roots of Empson’s ideas stretch back through 바카라사이트 Western scholarly tradition. And in a pointed afterword, Ossa-Richardson’s own ambiguities come to 바카라사이트 fore. There is no shape to 바카라사이트 history of ambiguity, but ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 book “is 바카라사이트 history of a mind that has found too many past answers and will not choose between 바카라사이트m”. This is right. Poetry, even 바카라사이트 poetry of literary scholarship, is allowed multiple meanings.
Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London.
A History of Ambiguity
By Anthony Ossa-Richardson
Princeton University Press
488pp, ?40.00
ISBN 9780691167954
Published 29 May 2019
后记
Print headline: Hare-brained and full of insights
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
