All is true," realist writers would say of their work, to which critics now respond: All is art and artifice. Offering a new approach to reading nineteenth-century realist fiction, Lilian R. Furst seeks to reconcile these contradictory claims. In doing so, she clarifies the deceptions, appropriations, intentions, and ultimately the power of literary realism. In close textual analyses of works ranging across European and American literature, including paradigmatic texts by Balzac, Flaubert, George Eliot, Zola, Henry James, and Thomas Mann, Furst shows how the handling of time, the presentation of place, and certain narrational strategies have served the realists' claim. She demonstrates how readers today, like those a hundred years ago, are convinced of the authenticity of the created illusion by such means as framing, voice, perspective, and the slippage from metonymy to metaphor. Further, Furst reveals the pains the realists took to conceal these devices, and thus to protect their claim to be employing a simple form. Taking into account both the claims and the covert strategies of these writers, All Is True puts forward an alternative to the conventional polarized reading of the realist text--which emerges here as neither strictly an imitation of an extraneous model nor simply a web of words but a brilliantly complex imbrication of the two. A major statement on one of the most enduring forms in cultural history, this book promises to alter not only our view of realist fiction but our understanding of how we read it.
Women traditionally have been expected to tend to the sick as part of their domestic duties, yet throughout history they have faced an uphill struggle to be accepted as healers outside of the household.
Although there are many books on the mechanics of doctor-patient interaction, none has previously confronted the philosophical and psychological issues of power and trust that bind these figures. One consequence of their changed relationship, Furst asserts, has been the decrease of interest in patients as individuals. In this time of impersonal HMOs and spiraling health-care costs, she hopes that doctors and patients can learn from the past and eventually find a mutually beneficial balance of power that will see medicine as both a science and an art and will recognize human understanding as an integral element of healing.
Originally published in 1977, this volume gives a co-hesive overview of Franco-German literary relationships between 1770 and 1895. It discerns the dynamics and outlines the structure of the interrelationship. The two literatures develop in a broadly similar direction in the nineteenth century, but there is a puzzling time-lag which forms the focal point of enquiry. It looks back to the combination of literary, political and social factors that may explain how the time-lag came into being. The book serves both as an introduction and as a starting point for further detailed analysis of specific areas and offers a new approach to the comparative study of literature.
Through the Lens of the Reader is a sequence of ten essays exploring European narrative from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. It covers a wide spectrum of authors ranging from Goethe through Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, George Eliot, Henry James to Rilke, Thomas Mann, and Kafka. The essays are unified by a particular mode of reading, in which the lens of the reader becomes the filter through which texts are constructed in accordance with the signals emitted by their narrational and linguistic strategies.
While countless memoirs have been written about depression and therapy, no one has examined how the "talking cure" of psychotherapy is presented in novels and other works of literature. Beginning with an overview of the principles of psychotherapy and its growing use as a treatment for mental and emotional disorders, Lilian Furst addresses the patient's view of the value of talk. Patients' portrayals of psychotherapy in literary works range from serious to satirical and from comic to ironic, with some descriptions verging on the grotesque. Furst identifies the overtalkers, undertalkers, and duet voices that shape the individual experiences of psychotherapy. While the voices of the overtalkers overwhelm those of their therapists, undertalkers are reluctant to express or acknowledge their feelings. Particularly revealing are the instances where patient and therapist provide separate but parallel renderings of the same therapy. Just Talk looks at a wide range of questions about psychotherapy. Furst considers the patient's first impressions of the therapist and how the patient is prompted to engage in talk. She looks for signs of self-deception or self-betrayal on the patient's part and asks how the therapist's behavior affects the patient's responses and the ultimate outcome of the therapy. Furst examines such well-known works as Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, Plath's The Bell Jar, and Lodge's Therapy, as well as lesser-known novels, to discuss how patients react to psychotherapy as a cure for mental and emotional disorders. Her analysis of these narratives adds significantly to our understanding of the dynamic relationship between patient and therapist and reveals much about the healing process that is not addressed in technical casebooks.
Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in March of 1938, Desider Furst, his wife, and his daughter suddenly found themselves hunted outlaws, holders of a German passport branded with a red "J" for Jewish. They escaped from Vienna and eventually settled in England, where they spent the war years as "enemy aliens." In 1971 they emigrated once more, this time voluntarily, to the United States. Home is Somewhere Else is a dual-voice, autobiographical narration by father and daughter, recounting the family's displacements, obstacles, and repeated reversals. The experiences documented here are typical of many Central Europeans whose lives were radically and painfully affected by the Nazis. This book's originality lies in its narrative format and its revelation of what befell the "lucky" ones merely on the margins of the Holocaust.
Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in March of 1938, Desider Furst, his wife, and his daughter suddenly found themselves hunted outlaws, holders of a German passport branded with a red "J" for Jewish. They escaped from Vienna and eventually settled in England, where they spent the war years as "enemy aliens." In 1971 they emigrated once more, this time voluntarily, to the United States. Home is Somewhere Else is a dual-voice, autobiographical narration by father and daughter, recounting the family's displacements, obstacles, and repeated reversals. The experiences documented here are typical of many Central Europeans whose lives were radically and painfully affected by the Nazis. This book's originality lies in its narrative format and its revelation of what befell the "lucky" ones merely on the margins of the Holocaust.
Although there are many books on the mechanics of doctor-patient interaction, none has previously confronted the philosophical and psychological issues of power and trust that bind these figures. One consequence of their changed relationship, Furst asserts, has been the decrease of interest in patients as individuals. In this time of impersonal HMOs and spiraling health-care costs, she hopes that doctors and patients can learn from the past and eventually find a mutually beneficial balance of power that will see medicine as both a science and an art and will recognize human understanding as an integral element of healing.
All is true," realist writers would say of their work, to which critics now respond: All is art and artifice. Offering a new approach to reading nineteenth-century realist fiction, Lilian R. Furst seeks to reconcile these contradictory claims. In doing so, she clarifies the deceptions, appropriations, intentions, and ultimately the power of literary realism. In close textual analyses of works ranging across European and American literature, including paradigmatic texts by Balzac, Flaubert, George Eliot, Zola, Henry James, and Thomas Mann, Furst shows how the handling of time, the presentation of place, and certain narrational strategies have served the realists' claim. She demonstrates how readers today, like those a hundred years ago, are convinced of the authenticity of the created illusion by such means as framing, voice, perspective, and the slippage from metonymy to metaphor. Further, Furst reveals the pains the realists took to conceal these devices, and thus to protect their claim to be employing a simple form. Taking into account both the claims and the covert strategies of these writers, All Is True puts forward an alternative to the conventional polarized reading of the realist text--which emerges here as neither strictly an imitation of an extraneous model nor simply a web of words but a brilliantly complex imbrication of the two. A major statement on one of the most enduring forms in cultural history, this book promises to alter not only our view of realist fiction but our understanding of how we read it.
Originally published in 1977, this volume gives a co-hesive overview of Franco-German literary relationships between 1770 and 1895. It discerns the dynamics and outlines the structure of the interrelationship. The two literatures develop in a broadly similar direction in the nineteenth century, but there is a puzzling time-lag which forms the focal point of enquiry. It looks back to the combination of literary, political and social factors that may explain how the time-lag came into being. The book serves both as an introduction and as a starting point for further detailed analysis of specific areas and offers a new approach to the comparative study of literature.
First published in 1971, this book examines the literary style of Naturalism. After introducing the reader to the term itself, including its history and its relationship to Realism, it goes on to trace the origins of the Naturalist movement as well as particular groups which adhered to Naturalism and the theories they espoused. It also provides a summary of the key Naturalist literary works and concludes which a brief reflection on the movement as a whole. This book will be of interest to those studying nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature.
First published in 1969, this work traces the evolution of Romanticism and in doing so, demonstrates its novelty as an imaginative and emotional perception of the world in contrast to the rationalistic approach which was dominant in the seventeenth century. It identifies the fundamental similarities between Romantic writing in England, France and Germany as well as their differences brought about by divergent literary and social backgrounds. The book is concluded by a review of the problems that arise from a simple definition of Romanticism.
While countless memoirs have been written about depression and therapy, no one has examined how the "talking cure" of psychotherapy is presented in novels and other works of literature. Beginning with an overview of the principles of psychotherapy and its growing use as a treatment for mental and emotional disorders, Lilian Furst addresses the patient's view of the value of talk. Patients' portrayals of psychotherapy in literary works range from serious to satirical and from comic to ironic, with some descriptions verging on the grotesque. Furst identifies the overtalkers, undertalkers, and duet voices that shape the individual experiences of psychotherapy. While the voices of the overtalkers overwhelm those of their therapists, undertalkers are reluctant to express or acknowledge their feelings. Particularly revealing are the instances where patient and therapist provide separate but parallel renderings of the same therapy. Just Talk looks at a wide range of questions about psychotherapy. Furst considers the patient's first impressions of the therapist and how the patient is prompted to engage in talk. She looks for signs of self-deception or self-betrayal on the patient's part and asks how the therapist's behavior affects the patient's responses and the ultimate outcome of the therapy. Furst examines such well-known works as Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, Plath's The Bell Jar, and Lodge's Therapy, as well as lesser-known novels, to discuss how patients react to psychotherapy as a cure for mental and emotional disorders. Her analysis of these narratives adds significantly to our understanding of the dynamic relationship between patient and therapist and reveals much about the healing process that is not addressed in technical casebooks.
This interdisciplinary study examines the enigmatic category of psychosomatic disorders as articulated in medical writings and represented in literary works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Six key works are analyzed: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin, Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, Brian O'Doherty's The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P., and Pat Barker's Regeneration. Each is a case study in detection as the hidden sources of bodily ills are uncovered in intra- or interpersonal conflicts such as guilt, family tensions, and marital discord. The book fosters a better understanding of these puzzling disorders by revealing how they function simultaneously as masks and as manifestations of inner suffering.
Through the Lens of the Reader is a sequence of ten essays exploring European narrative from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. It covers a wide spectrum of authors ranging from Goethe through Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, George Eliot, Henry James to Rilke, Thomas Mann, and Kafka. The essays are unified by a particular mode of reading, in which the lens of the reader becomes the filter through which texts are constructed in accordance with the signals emitted by their narrational and linguistic strategies.
First published in 1980. This collection of carefully selected extracts from primary texts seeks to show what the Romantics themselves held Romanticism to be. The movement is thus defined in terms of the writers’ own views of their art both in general principle and in practical terms. This title will be of interest to students of literature.
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