Dialogue (The New Critical Idiom)

by PeterWomack (Author)

• New

  Hardcover
  2011

  $101.36

• New

  Paperback
  2011

  $22.58

  Dialogue is a many-sided critical concept; at once an ancient philosophical genre, a formal component of fiction and drama, a model for the relationship of writer and reader, and a theoretical key to the nature of language. In all its forms, it questions `literature', disturbing the singleness and fixity of the written text with the fluid interactivity of conversation.

  In this clear and concise guide to the multiple significance of the term, Peter Womack:

  • outlines the history of dialogue form, looking at Platonic, Renaissance, Enlightenment and Modern examples
  • illustrates the play of dialogue in the many `voices' of the novel, and considers how dialogue works on the stage
  • interprets the influential dialogic theories of Mikhail Bakhtin
  • examines the idea that literary study itself consists of a `dialogue' with the past
  • presents a useful glossary and further reading section.

  Practical and thought-provoking, this volume is the ideal starting-point for the exploration of this diverse and fascinating literary form.