The End of Literature, Hegel, and the Contemporary Novel
This book explores the concept of the end of literature through the lens of Hegel's philosophy of art. In his version of Hegel's 'end of art' thesis, Arthur Danto claimed that contemporary art has abandoned its distinctive sensitive and emotive features t
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The End of Literature, Hegel, and the Contemporary Novel
Francesco Campana
The End of Literature, Hegel, and the Contemporary Novel
Francesco Campana University of Padua Padua, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-31394-4 ISBN 978-3-030-31395-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31395-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my parents
Preface
In his famous and widely discussed essay Why Bother?, now present in the collection How to Be Alone, Jonathan Franzen questions the meaning of a literary genre such as the social novel for the contemporary world and is struck by its manifest loss of centrality in society, especially in comparison with the past. His essay, which previously appeared in the April 1996 issue of Harper’s magazine with the title Perchance to Dream: In the Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels, sums the problem up in the following way: ‘In the nineteenth century, when Dickens and Darwin and Disraeli all read one another’s work, the novel was the preeminent medium of social instruction. A new book by Thackeray or William Dean Howells was anticipated with the kind of fever that a late-December film release inspires today’ (Franzen 2002, 65). Mass and consumer society, with its new technologies and chaotic network of information, has led to the loss of the pivotal role that the social novel and literature in general played two centuries ago. This happened in favour of more direct and instant media such as television, radio, photography and even journalism: ‘Today’s Baudelaires are hip-hop artists’, Franzen stated (Franzen 2002, 66). Through a long reflection on his personal e
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