Edited by Elaine Freedgood and Cannon Schmitt
Denotative, literal, and technical language—apparently
transparent and lacking in resonance—seems to be the opposite of literary
language. A vigorous reading of the former, this special issue of Representations argues,
should seek to realize its opacity and difficulty, its nonidentity with itself.
To do so requires a revised and expanded sense of denotation, a rethinking of
reference, the dereification of writing, an appeal to more expansive and
heterodox archives, a historicism that forestalls or delays the figural, and
more reading. Unlike recent literary critical attempts to restrict the field of
reading, the practices sketched here seek to remove all limits to that which
can be read, researched, and made into meaning. Contributors include Freedgood
and Schmitt as well as Rachel Sagner Buurma, Margaret Cohen, Ian Duncan, and
Laura Heffernan.
Available through University of California Press
