Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature PDF
Preview Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature
Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature This page intentionally left blank STANLEY CAVELL AND THE CLAIM OF LITERATURE David Rudrum The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2013 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363 www .press .jhu .edu Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Rudrum, David, 1974– Stanley Cavell and the claim of literature / David Rudrum. pages cm I ncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 1- 4214- 1048- 7 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 1- 4214- 1049- 4 (electronic) — ISBN 1- 4214- 1048- 6 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 1- 4214- 1049- 4 (electronic) 1 . Literature— Philosophy. 2. Literature— History and criticism— Theory, etc. 3. Cavell, Stanley, 1926— Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PN49.R775 2013 801—dc23 2012048653 A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410- 516- 6936 or specialsales@ press.jhu.edu. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible. For my son, Cedric. Daddy misses you. This page intentionally left blank Contents Ac know ledg ments ix List of Abbreviated Titles xi introduction: Approaching the Unapproachable 1 1 Making Sense(s) of Walden 24 2 The Avoidance of Shakespeare 42 3 From the Sublime to the Ordinary: Stanley Cavell’s Beckett 85 4 How to Do Things with Wordsworth 99 5 What Did Cavell Want of Poe? 122 6 “Politics as Opposed to What?”: Social Contract and Marriage Contract in A Doll’s House 134 7 Tragedy’s Tragedies: Between the Skeptical and the Ethical 177 conclusion: Just an Ordinary American Tragedy 222 Notes 257 Bibliography 277 Index 283 This page intentionally left blank Ac know ledg ments First and foremost, let me begin by thanking everyone at the Johns Hopkins University Press, in par tic u lar Matt McAdam for taking an interest in this project and for his invaluable support. It is equally important to thank my colleagues and my students at the Uni- versity of Huddersfi eld. The full extent of my gratitude to them is, in fact, easily quantifi ed: they aff orded me the priceless opportunity of a semester of sabbati- cal leave, during which the introduction, chapters 2 and 7, and most of the con- clusion were written. Without it, if I have done my sums right, about two-t hirds of the pages in this book would yet be unwritten. Intellectual debts, however, are harder to mea sure, and harder still to repay. My balance sheet in this project resembles that of most of today’s Western gov- ernments: what I owe to my creditors far outstrips the value of my own output. For discussions of Beckett, I am im mensely grateful to Stanley Cavell, Marjorie Perloff , James Conant, Paola Marrati, James Noggle, Anselm Haverkamp, Chris- toph Menke, Katrin Trüstedt, Hent de Vries, and Christopher Johnson. For the chapter on Wordsworth, I am similarly indebted to Richard Eldridge, Kim Ev- ans, Asja Szafraniec, James Loxley, and Andrew Taylor. Thanks to Jami Bartlett and her colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, for inviting me to talk about tragedy, and to Jan Balakian and Joshua Polster for the opportunity to air my views on Miller— both were im mensely rewarding experiences. Ralph Berry, Garry Hagberg, and Lawrence Rhu formed a phenomenal triumvirate of brains to pick. My colleague Merrick Burrow made some helpful suggestions about fi nding a publisher for this project, and my friend Tim Shaw has helped me develop some fun ways of teaching the ideas herein. The oldest of these debts, however, is to Josh Cohen, who about ten years ago handed me a syllabus to teach that steered me away from my fi xation on Wittgenstein and Beckett and toward Thoreau’s Walden and Poe’s “The Imp of the Perverse,” thereby— unbeknownst to us both— sketching out the perimeter of this project for me.
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