Estrangement And The Somatics Of Literature: Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht (parallax: Re-visions Of Culture And Society)

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Drawing together the estrangement theories of Viktor Shklovsky and Bertolt Brecht with Leo Tolstoy's theory of infection, Douglas Robinson studies the ways in which shared evaluative affect regulates both literary familiarity -- convention and tradition -- and modern strategies of alienation, depersonalization, and malaise.This book begins with two assumptions, both taken from Tolstoy's late aesthetic treatise What Is Art? (1898): that there is a malaise in culture, and that literature's power to "infect" readers with the moral values of the author is a possible cure for this malaise. Exploring these ideas of estrangement within the contexts of earlier, contemporary, and later critical theory, Robinson argues that Shklovsky and Brecht follow Tolstoy in their efforts to fight depersonalization by imbuing readers with the transformative guidance of collectivized feeling. Robinson's somatic approach to literature offers a powerful alternative to depersonalizing structuralist and poststructuralist theorization without simply retreating into conservative rejection and reaction.Both a comparative study of Russian and German literary-theoretical history and an insightful examination of the somatics of literature, this groundbreaking work provides a deeper understanding of how literature affects the reader and offers a new perspective on present-day problems in poststructuralist approaches to the human condition. (2010)

E-Book Content

Estrangement and the Somatics of Literature     p a r a l l a x             r e - v i s i o n s o f c u lt u r e                                                               and society Stephen G. Nichols, Gerald Prince, and Wendy Steiner series editors Estrangement and the Somatics of Literature Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht Douglas Robinson The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2008 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robinson, Douglas, 1954–   Estrangement and the somatics of literature : Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht / Douglas Robinson.    p.  cm. — (Parallax, re-visions of culture and society)   Includes bibliographical references and index.   isbn-13: 978-0-8018-8796-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)   isbn-10: 0-8018-8796-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)   1. Alienation (Social psychology) in literature. 2. Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828–1910—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Shklovskii, Viktor Borisovich, 1893–1984—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Brecht, Bertolt, 1898–1956—Criticism and interpretation. 5. Criticism—Russia (Federation)— History. 6. Criticism—German—History. I. Title.   pn56.a45r63 2008   809′.9333—dc22   2007033705 A catalog 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 [email protected] Contents Acknowledgments Introduction one Zarazhenie: Tolstoy’s Infection Theory 1 Tolstoy’s Infection The Disease 5  The Cure 13  Damasio’s Somatic Theory 19 2 Tolstoy’s Estrangement Estrangement Of/From 34  Tolstoy’s Depersonalization 41  Disinfecting the Infection Theory 62 two vii ix 3 34 Ostranenie: Shklovsky’s Estrangement Theory 3 Shklovsky’s Modernist Poetics The Capacity to Flow 82  The Four Things 89  Re
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