Carnival, Hysteria, and Writing: The Collected Essays and Autobiography of Allon White [Paperback]

Allon White (Author), Stuart Hall (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 1993

Before his death in 1988 at age 38, Allon White had become known as one of the most important literary and cultural critics of his generation. This collection represents a summation of the work which, as Stuart Hall explains in the Introduction, transformed cultural studies in the 1980s. White's central concerns--with writing, carnival, the body, hysteria, and memory--recur with differing inflections in the pieces here. They range from a discussion of Julia Kristeva's work to language and location in Bleak House, from a Thomas Pynchon short story to the "seriousness" of academic language. Other pieces deal with Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon, and Mikhail Bakhtin, one of White's major influences. This collection also includes White's poignant autobiographical fragment, "Too Close to the Bone." A fitting memorial to a major figure, this book will be essential reading for everyone working within literary and cultural studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`Here is everything that was already so fully achieved in Allon White's writing; the thrilled, dissective passion of the analysis, the metaphorical ebullience, the cool hold of the argument. At a time when intellectual work is being systematically milled down into institutionalized drudgery, his example reminds us of the vitality and ardour owed to thought.' Times Literary Supplement

`this slim collected essays volume gives a special glimpse of Britain's great hope in the cult studs league' The Modern Review

`gives a special glimpse of Britain's great hope in the cult studs league' Modern Review

About the Author

Allon White is at University of Sussex.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (September 16, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019812287X
• ISBN-13: 978-0198122876
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,200,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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