How Words Make Things Happen

Sooner or later, our words take on meanings other than we intended. How Words Make Things Happen...
CHF 73.73
CHF 73.73
SKU: 9780199672790
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 96 left in stock
Author: David Bromwich
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: CHF 73.73
10 customers are viewing this product
How Words Make Things Happen by Bromwich, David

How Words Make Things Happen

CHF 73.73

How Words Make Things Happen

CHF 73.73
Author: David Bromwich
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Sooner or later, our words take on meanings other than we intended. How Words Make Things Happen suggests that the conventional idea of persuasive rhetoric (which assumes a speaker's control of calculated effects) and the modern idea of literary autonomy (which assumes that 'poetry makes nothing happen') together have produced a misleading account of the relations between words and human action. Words do make things happen. But they cannot be counted on to produce the result they intend.

This volume studies examples from a range of speakers and writers and offers close readings of their words. Chapter 1 considers the theory of speech-acts propounded by J.L. Austin. 'Speakers Who Convince Themselves' is the subject of chapter 2, which interprets two soliloquies by Shakespeare's characters and two by Milton's Satan. The oratory of Burke and Lincoln come in for extended treatment in chapter 3, while chapter 4 looks at the rival tendencies of moral suasion and aestheticism in the poetry of Yeats and Auden. The final chapter, a cause of controversy when first published in the London Review of Books, supports a policy of unrestricted free speech against contemporary proposals of censorship. Since we cannot know what our own words are going to do, we have no standing to justify the banishment of one set of words in favour of another.


Author: David Bromwich
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 06/04/2019
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.20w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780199672790


Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2021

About the Author

David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English, Yale University

David Bromwich is a scholar of British and American romanticism. He is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University, where he has taught since 1988. Among his books are Hazlitt: The Mind of a Critic, Disowned by Memory: Wordsworth's Poetry of the 1790s, and The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke.


Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Related Products

Recently Viewed Products