Deborah Baker Wyrick's Books

Jonathan Swift and the Vested Word

By: Deborah Baker Wyrick

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Jonathan Swift and the Vested Word

By: Deborah Baker Wyrick

In Jonathan Swift and the Vested Word, Deborah Wyrick argues that modern Continental and American literary theory is "tantalizingly applicable to Swiftian texts." Its applicability, she writes, "stems from Swift's interest in and exploration of what are now though of as phenomenological, structuralist, poststructuralist, and new historicist concerns: how a life in language comes into being, how semiotic systems determine meaning, how texts open up their own systems to other texts and to multiple interpretations." Wyrick investigates Swift's confrontations with three theories of language current in his day, theories that locate meaning in the thing named, in the idea behind the word, or in the response of the audience. She concludes that Swift fashioned a fourth theory of meaning, one that locates meaning in and among words themselves. Because of his fear of the anarchic potential of language, Swift attempted to invest his words with extratextual authority; yet a powerful counterforce was his desire to exploit the possibilities of language divested of stable significance. These divestitures, particularly the word-play and language games, ultimately served serious personal and social purposes. A crucial personal purpose was Swift's ability to create a textual self, which he did, Wyrick maintains, by constructing defensive transvestitures centered on clothes and money. These parallel sign systems produced Swift's greatest achievement in using the resources of language and history to effect political action. By using the entire Swift canon -- poems and prose narratives, letters and essays, sermons and satires -- Wyrick presents Swift's struggle with the inadequacies of language and its inability to answer the tremendous demands he made upon it. Originally published 1988. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

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Page Count

278

Publisher

UNC Press Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807817805

ISBN 13

9780807817803

Fanon For Beginners

By: Deborah Baker Wyrick

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Fanon For Beginners

By: Deborah Baker Wyrick

Philosopher, psychoanalyst, politician, propagandist, prophet...although difficult to categorize, Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) is one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century and one of our most powerful writers on race and revolution. The book opens with a biography, following Fanon from his birthplace of Martinique through combat in World War II and education in France, to his heroic involvement in the fights for Algerian independence and African decolonization. After a brief discussion of Fanon’s political and cultural influences, the main section of the book covers the three principal stages of Fanon’s thought: the search for black identity, as presented in Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon's stunning diagnosis of racism the struggle against colonialism, as explained in "A Dying Colonialism" and "Toward the African Revolution," essays centering on Algeria’s war of independence the process of decolonization, as analyzed in The Wretched of the Earth, the book that extended insights gained in Algeria to Africa and the Third World Fanon For Beginners concludes by examining Fanon’s influence on political practice, such as the Black Power movement in the United States, on literary theory, and on political studies showing how his works and words continue to have a profound impact on contemporary cultural debate.e.

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