Review by Choice Review
The flowering of theory over the past two decades has led to many implied but unkept promises. It has been clear that close reading, literary history, and our understanding of the relations between verbal, visual, and social texts would have to change significantly, but very few book-length works fulfilled the potential of theory; instead, many scholars ceased to work in literary history and began to write theory. Terdiman's book demonstrates how productive and illuminating the theoretical revolution can be in the hands of an accomplished scholar versed in the new critical discourses. Except for Marx, most of the major figures studied here are French (Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Mallarme, the lithographer Daumier), but this is a book for all serious students of literature. In a detailed and lucid argument, Terdiman shows how 19th-century artists and intellectuals struggled to fashion counter-discourses with which to resist the dominant forms of bourgeois life and discourse. An imposing range and variety of texts are shown to be linked by their struggle to influence the construction of culture, itself a contested terrain. While complex, this excellent study is accessible to advanced undergraduates. Strongly recommended for all college libraries; essential for research libraries.-K. Tololyan, Wesleyan University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
