How do we talk about what we read? -- Nonlinear thinking: redefining the paradigm. -- Reading on the edge of chaos: Finnegans wake and the burden of linearity. -- "And they lived happily ever after": the broke contract of fairy tales. -- "I sing of arms and of a man": the post-Newtonian hero. -- "A time for every purpose under heaven": the circularity of biblical hermeneutics in the Book of Job. -- Oscar Wilde and the fabrication of an Irish identity. -- What is to be done? -- Appendix: The rise of nonlinear science
Summary
"An invigorating (and convincing) challenge to the cornerstone assumptions of virtually all contemporary literary criticism ... this study lays the groundwork for a dynamic new approach to reading literature. Sure to be controversial, its fundamental right-headedness should help to open debate on the nature of literary criticism across numerous disciplines
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-134) and index
