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The Lily's Tongue: Figure and Authority in Kierkegaard's Lily Discourses
Contributor(s): Maughan-Brown, Frances (Author)
ISBN: 1438476337     ISBN-13: 9781438476339
Publisher: State University of New York Press
OUR PRICE:   $94.05  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: October 2019
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism
- Philosophy | History & Surveys - Modern
Dewey: 198.9
LCCN: 2018052704
Series: Suny Series, Literature . . . in Theory
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6.2" W x 9.1" (0.95 lbs) 220 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - Modern
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
How do texts speak with authority? That is the question at the heart of Kierkegaard's theory and practice of indirect communication. None of Kierkegaard's texts respond to this question more concisely and powerfully than the four discourses he wrote about the lily in the Gospel. The Lily's Tongue is a nuanced, sustained reading of these Lily Discourses. Kierkegaard takes the lilies as authoritative, rather than merely figural or metaphorical. This book is a careful exploration of what Kierkegaard means by this authority.

Frances Maughan-Brown demonstrates how Kierkegaard argues that the key is in the act of reading itself--no text can have authority unless the reader grants it that authority because no text can entirely avoid figural language. Texts don't speak directly; their tongue is always the lily's tongue. What is revealed in the Lily Discourses is a groundbreaking theory of figure, which requires a renewed reading of Kierkegaard's major pseudonymous works.