BASIC CONCEPTS OF POETICS - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing

Staiger, Emil (Translated by Janette C. Hudson & Luanne T. Frank) & Burkhard, Marianne (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0271006749 / ISBN 13: 9780271006741

Published by Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991, 1991

About this Item

1st Printing. 224 pages. Published in 1991. Posthumous publication in English of the author's classic account. Emil Staiger's most influential masterpiece. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the Softcover Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only by a University Press. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Emil Staiger's "Grundbegriffe der Poetik" in a felicitous English translation. The most important volume in the "Penn State Series In German Literature" Series. Staiger was, in fact, Swiss, not German, and was one of the greatest literary critics of the 20th century. He died in 1987, unable to see his work finally and belatedly published in English. "Basic Concepts of Poetics" is "a monument in the history of literary criticism that has been unavailable to the English reader until now. Of Staiger's works, 'Poetics' is the most radical, the most disruptive, for it constructs a revolutionary new poetics and erects it alongside the traditional Aristotelian one. Challenges the usefulness of the most distinguished of Western literary critical paradigms, the genre theory, that since the eighteenth century has been part of critics' indispensable theoretical equipment. In its stead, Staiger proposes to explain literary genres on the basis of fundamental patterns of literary creativity. He selects his examples from various European literary traditions, thus engaging the scholar as well as the comparatist in national literatures. By choosing an inductive method, he speaks to all who are concerned with literary value" (Publisher's blurb). Basically, he asks and attempts to answer, "What is literary value? Why do some works have literary merit and others, ostensibly literary, do not?". The renewed emphasis on "reading" in our distracted time overlooks the more important need to "read only the great books" as the true mission of literacy and literature for our time. Although still largely unknown in America, even in academic circles, Emil Staiger's seminal influence on consecutive generations of literary critics, from the New Critics to Lionel Trilling to Susan Sontag (who discovered his work in French translation) to Harold Bloom has been decisive if somewhat unacknowledged. The posthumous publication in English of his most valuable book is a major literary event of our time. An absolute "must-have" title for Emil Staiger collectors. This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws or are the Softcover Edition. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. One of the greatest literary critics of the 20th century. A fine copy. ISBN 0271006749.

Seller Inventory # 23882

Bibliographic Details

• Title: BASIC CONCEPTS OF POETICS - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing
• Publisher: Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271006749
• ISBN 13: 9780271006741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: no

About this title

Synopsis

Emil Staiger (1908–1987), a native of Switzerland, was one of the foremost scholars in the field of literary studies. Grundbegriffe der Poetik is a monument in the history of literary criticism that has been unavailable to the English reader until now. Of Staiger's works, Poetics is probably the most radical, the most disruptive, for it constructs a revolutionary new poetics and erects it alongside the old traditional Aristotelian one. Here Staiger challenges the usefulness of the most distinguished of Western literary critical paradigms, the genre theory, that since the eighteenth century has been part of critics' indispensable theoretical equipment―a sort of literary sine qua non. In its stead, Staiger proposes to explain literary genres on the basis of fundamental patterns of literary creativity. He selects his examples from various European literary traditions, thus engaging the scholar as well as the comparatist in national literatures. By choosing an inductive method, he speaks to all concerned with literary values.

In her introduction, Luanne Frank establishes how the Poetics mediates between those modes of criticism current in the 1940s and those of the 1980s, as well as between those held by European scholars and those embraced by American scholars. Frank places Staiger's work within the history of genre criticism from an American perspective, defines its goals and merits, and formulates a critical response long overdue in Europe and most welcome in the United States.

About the Authors

Janette C. Hudson is a lecturer in the German department at the University of Virginia.

Luanne Frank is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Arlington.

Marianne Burkhard has published widely in the fields of German and Swiss literature and women in literature.