The Fateful Question of Culture (The Wellek Library Lectures) - Hardcover

Hartman, Geoffrey H

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231084900 ISBN 13: 9780231084901

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Examining a range of literature, philosophy, social criticism and popular culture, this text considers the meanings and uses of culture in contemporary society. It examines both the masterworks of European literature and the art and signs and symbols of popular media and daily life. The triumph of cultural studies - and its critiques of bourgeois Eurocentric tradition - is largely complete, the author writes. Against the political appropriation of culture, he posits, instead, a definition of culture as public conversation, intellectual and social debate among diverse communities. Against reactionary pressure to impose - or reinstate - a singular culture, or to seek in art or literature an affirmation of group identity, the author sketches new roles for the human imagination in a postmodern world.

About this title

Review

"In six tightly reasoned and broadly referenced chapters, Hartman explores the idea of culture, first attempting to define the word and then by exploring how the concept functions in a postmodern world. He makes the case that the purpose of culture is to reduce alienation, the sense of loss resulting from the change from agrarian to industrial society. Hartman sees Wordsworth as not only documenting the change but attempting to translate the value and sense of belonging of the agrarian into the industrial society. On the continent, Heidegger attempts to launch 'an original and originative thinking that will restore language to simplicity and human life to its unalienated place in nature.'... The reduction of the tension between multiculturalism, which does little 'to redeem the imaginative from abstraction, 'and cultural identity, which redeems at the price of exclusiveness, is learning. An excellent resource for graduate collections." -- "Choice"

"A complex and deeply-learned meditation about the possibilities of culture." -- John Axcelson, Columbia University, "The Wordsworth Circle"

"A complex and deeply-learned meditation about the possibilities of culture." -- John Axcelson, Columbia University, The Wordsworth Circle

"In six tightly reasoned and broadly referenced chapters, Hartman explores the idea of culture, first attempting to define the word and then by exploring how the concept functions in a postmodern world. He makes the case that the purpose of culture is to reduce alienation, the sense of loss resulting from the change from agrarian to industrial society. Hartman sees Wordsworth as not only documenting the change but attempting to translate the value and sense of belonging of the agrarian into the industrial society. On the continent, Heidegger attempts to launch 'an original and originative thinking that will restore language to simplicity and human life to its unalienated place in nature.'... The reduction of the tension between multiculturalism, which does little 'to redeem the imaginative from abstraction, 'and cultural identity, which redeems at the price of exclusiveness, is learning. An excellent resource for graduate collections." -- Choice

"A complex and deeply-learned meditation about the possibilities of culture." -- John Axcelson, Columbia University, "The Wordsworth Circle"

"In six tightly reasoned and broadly referenced chapters, Hartman explores the idea of culture, first attempting to define the word and then by exploring how the concept functions in a postmodern world. He makes the case that the purpose of culture is to reduce alienation, the sense of loss resulting from the change from agrarian to industrial society. Hartman sees Wordsworth as not only documenting the change but attempting to translate the value and sense of belonging of the agrarian into the industrial society. On the continent, Heidegger attempts to launch 'an original and originative thinking that will restore language to simplicity and human life to its unalienated place in nature.'... The reduction of the tension between multiculturalism, which does little 'to redeem the imaginative from abstraction, 'and cultural identity, which redeems at the price of exclusiveness, is learning. An excellent resource for graduate collections." -- "Choice"

A complex and deeply-learned meditation about the possibilities of culture.--John Axcelson, Columbia University "The Wordsworth Circle "

A complex and deeply-learned meditation about the possibilities of culture.

--John Axcelson, Columbia University "The Wordsworth Circle "

A complex and deeply-learned meditation about the possibilities of culture.--John Axcelson, Columbia University "The Wordsworth Circle "

About the Author

Geoffrey Hartman is Sterling Professor (Emeritus) of English and Comparative Literature at Yale University. His books include Easy Pieces (Columbia); Holocaust Rememberance: The Shapes of Memory; Minor Prophecies; The Literary Essay in the Culture Wars; and, most recently, The Longest Shadow: In the Aftermath of the Holocaust.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0231084900
• ISBN 13: 9780231084901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 266