| The Wreath of Wild Olive: Play, Liminality, and the Study of Literature Contributor(s): Spariosu, Mihai I. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0791433668 ISBN-13: 9780791433669 Publisher: State University of New York Press OUR PRICE: $35.10 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1997 Annotation: 'Spariosu's book is one of the most compelling accounts of the nature of play that I have ever encountered. Its breadth and depth of knowledge are remarkable, its understanding of the importance of play acute. I know of no other book that probes the notion of play from as many different angles and that manages to provoke as many different questions on the topic as this one.'--James S. Hans, Wake Forest University |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | European - General - Philosophy | Aesthetics - Philosophy | Ethics & Moral Philosophy |
| Dewey: 809.933 |
| LCCN: 96037257 |
| Series: Suny Series, the Margins of Literature |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.87" W x 8.89" (1.04 lbs) 350 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Mihai Spariosu's book strikingly intervenes in the debate raging among the various oppositional and hegemonic discourses by advancing a new philosophy that transcends the currently prevailing agonistic mentality. He develops a ludic-irenic view intended to exceed both a voluntaristic and rationalist mode of thought, thereby convincingly opposing the all-pervading mentality of power in a world marked by difference, scapegoating, and strife between various social, ethnic, racial, and sexual factions. The ludic-irenic stance, basically derived from the playfulness of literature, produces alternative mentalities and alternative worlds which promote a responsive understanding of what there is, thus bringing to bear a healing influence within the human community, in which power and difference will cease to be ultimates. What Spariosu puts forward and demonstrates by means of a stupendous erudition is no less than a total reorientation of cultural criticism that is bound to have its impact on the course cultural studies will take. |