Johnson, Writing, and Memory

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Cambridge University Press, Sep 5, 2002 - Literary Criticism - 222 pages
Johnson, Writing, and Memory demonstrates the importance of memory in Samuel Johnson's oeuvre. Greg Clingham argues that this is a notion of memory that is derived from the process of historical and creative writing, and is found to be embodied in works of literature and other cultural forms. He examines Johnson's writing, including his biographical writing, as it intersects with eighteenth-century thought on literature, history, fiction and law and in its subsequent compatibility with and resistance to modern theory. Clingham offers a theoretically nuanced and original account of Johnson's work.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION Johnson and authority
1
CHAPTER 1 Johnson and memory
14
CHAPTER 2 Johnson and nature
36
CHAPTER 3 Law narrative and memory
60
CHAPTER 4 Narrative history and memory in the Lives of the Poets
89
CHAPTER 5 Translation and memor in the Lives of the Poets
122
CHAPTER 6 Historiographical implications
158
Notes
168
Bibliography
202
Index
216
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About the author (2002)

Greg Clingham is Professor of English and Director of the University Press, Bucknell University. He has written and co-written several books.

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