Fiction agonistes : in defense of literature /

Jusdanis (Ohio State Univ.) is disturbed by the failure of those devoted to art to offer "a theory of art relevant to [the present] time." In the first few pages of this brief book, he asks how society has come to undervalue art in general and literature in particular as "a separate [and autonomous] realm of human practice wherein [one] can imagine alternate possibilities" for the world. In the rest of the book, he makes a gallant, articulate attempt to characterize what makes this realm separate and yet highly relevant to the social world. A genuinely learned critic, Jusdanis draws on a range of artists and thinkers: Aristophanes and James Joyce, Thomas Hardy and Milovan Pavic, C. P. Cavafy and Richard Wagner are all used to good effect. Enlarging on arguments first ventured by Sir Philip Sidney, Jusdanis demonstrates the persistent soundness of the paradox that autonomous art remains indispensable because only such art can be public and political. Even when Jusdanis uses terms and concepts such as "parabasis" and "parataxis," his explanations are lucid and his discourse accessible. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. K. Tololyan Wesleyan University