The Writer Writing

In an age of authorless, contextless, deconstructed texts, Francis-Noël Thomas argues that it is time to re-examine a fundamental but neglected concept of literature: writing is an action whose agent is an individual. Addressing both general readers and scholars, Thomas offers two cases, Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, read against the background of the authors' large, eccentric, and surprisingly similar claims about their texts as acts. He examines what happens when we take these claims seriously enough to find out why the authors made them in the first place and what bearing they have on the texts themselves.Originally published in 1993.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

List of Illustrations Ch. 2'Intentions' and 'Purposes' Interpretation and Actions Intention and Historical Interpretation Purpose and Literary Art Ch. 3'Parody' or the Imitation of Disciplines Ch. 4Explanations "Scientific" Explanation "Processive" Explanation Ch. 5Bernard Shaw: Historical Explanation "A Frankly Doctrinal Theatre" G.B.S. G.B.S. in the Theater G.B.S. as Historian Saint Joan: The Argument and Function of the Preface The Scope of the Play The Play of Saint Joan: Structure and Mechanism The Epilogue Ch. 6Marcel Proust: Psychological Explanation The Book and the Man "Psychology in Space and Time" The Syllabus of Errors The Triumph of the Will The Historical Author, the Narrator, and Their Books Ch. 7Historical Interpretation: The Face of the Muse and the Baker's Daughter Notes Index