STANFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
  
Cover of Thinking Allegory Otherwise by Edited by Brenda Machosky
Thinking Allegory Otherwise
Edited by Brenda Machosky


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2009
288 pages.
$70.00

Hardcover ISBN: 9780804763806
Ebook ISBN: 9780804773508

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Thinking Allegory Otherwise is a unique collection of essays by allegory specialists and other scholars who engage allegory in exciting new ways. The contributors include Jody Enders, Karen Feldman, Angus Fletcher, Blair Hoxby, Brenda Machosky, Catherine Gimelli Martin, Stephen Orgel, Maureen Quilligan, James Paxson, Daniel Selcer, Gordon Teskey, and Richard Wittman.

The essays are not limited to an examination of literary texts and works of art, and in fact focus on a wide range of topics that includes architecture, philosophy, theatre, science, and law. The book proves the truth of the statement that all language is allegorical, and more importantly it shows its consequences. To "think allegory otherwise" is to think otherwise— to rethink not only the idea of allegory itself, but also the law and its execution, the literality of figurative abstraction, and the figurations upon which even hard science depends.

About the author

Brenda Machosky is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Hawai'i West O'ahu.

"Thinking Allegory Otherwise therefore has something for everyone: it posits itself as a radical break from previous treatments of allegory, but insofar as it is thinking allegory otherwise in this way, it is also maintaining a very traditional emphasis on defining allegory as speaking otherwise. . .One of the clearest ways that this volume presents something new is in the strikingly interdisciplinary nature of the contributions."

—David Kelman, Comparative Literature Studies

"This profoundly comparatist volume is full of interdisciplinary vigor. It provides a comprehensive assessment of allegory as a discursive and aesthetic mode, and gives a highly favorable report about the current status of allegory studies."

—Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University

"This volume makes an important new intervention in the study of allegory by arguing that its role and importance in Western culture, including our current time, has been much underestimated."

—Kenneth Borris, McGill University