Price of Literature

Examines the presence of theory in the nineteenth-century French novel. Emerging after the French Revolution, what we call literature was conceived as an art liberated from representational constraints. Patrick Bray shows how literature's freedom to represent anything has meant, paradoxically, that it cannot articulate a coherent theory of itself.

Pretul literaturii examineaza prezenta teoriei in romanul francez din secolul al XIX-lea, ceva asemanator lui Proust cu lasarea unei etichete de pret pe un cadou. Aparut dupa Revolutia Franceza, ceea ce numim acum literatura a fost conceput ca o arta eliberata de constrangerile reprezentative.