Wittgenstein′s Ladder – Poetic Language & the Strangeness of the Ordinary: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary - Hardcover

Perloff, Marjorie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226660583 ISBN 13: 9780226660585

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

Marjorie Perloff, among our foremost critics of twentieth-century poetry, argues that Ludwig Wittgenstein provided writers with a radical new aesthetic, a key to recognizing the inescapable strangeness of ordinary language. Taking seriously Wittgenstein's remark that "philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry," Perloff begins by discussing Wittgenstein the "poet." What we learn is that the poetics of everyday life is anything but banal. "This book has the lucidity and the intelligence we have come to expect from Marjorie Perloff.--Linda Munk, American Literature "[Perloff] has brilliantly adapted Wittgenstein's conception of meaning and use to an analysis of contemporary language poetry."--Linda Voris, Boston Review "Wittgenstein's Ladder offers significant insights into the current state of poetry, literature, and literary study. Perloff emphasizes the vitality of reading and thinking about poetry, and the absolute necessity of pushing against the boundaries that define and limit our worlds."--David Clippinger, Chicago Review "Majorie Perloff has done more to illuminate our understanding of twentieth century poetic language than perhaps any other critic...Entertaining, witty, and above all highly original. "--Willard Bohn, SubStance

About this title

About the Author

Marjorie Perloff is the Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of Humanities at Stanford University.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226660583
• ISBN 13: 9780226660585
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 306