{"product_id":"in-defence-of-the-imagination-paperback","title":"In Defence of the Imagination - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eHelen Gardner\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Learned, lucid, fearless, and funny.\"--\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA spirited indictment of overinterpretation from the grand dame of English literary criticism.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Minds, like doors and mouths, are made to shut as well as to open,\" quips Helen Gardner in her 1979-1980 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. A vigorous and elegant champion of traditional literary values, Gardner takes aim here at what she sees as a creeping subversion of these values as a \"whirl of new doctrines\" sweeps through the academy. Deconstruction, the \u003ci\u003eNouvelle critique\u003c\/i\u003e, antithetical reading: all these exalt the open-ended interpretations of the theorist and the reader above the work of literature itself. They ask for \"a mind so open that it cannot ever be shut on anything.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn Defence of the Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e is not, then, a defense of the reader's right to \"import meanings\" to the text. Rather it is a defense of the imaginative and intellectual work it takes to understand literature as the author wrote it. It takes imagination to interpret a poem in light of an author's biography, or to grasp in a deep way the traditions that shaped an individual novel. Still, Gardner believes that the value of literary tradition remains, in an important sense, objective. Giving too much license to readers, whether by assigning only \"relevant\" contemporary novels to undergraduates or radically reinterpreting Shakespeare's plays to pander to modern sensibilities, dulls our ability to truly inhabit the literary past and impoverishes our own world in the process. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePugnacious and charming in equal measure, \u003ci\u003eIn Defence of the Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e ultimately affirms the value of a life devoted to the study of literature. Gardner's own lucidity, range of reference, and passionate concern for reading are in themselves powerful affirmations of her argument.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.47 x 8 x 5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 01, 1984\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53055023808736,"sku":"9780674445406","price":64.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/5909\/4496\/files\/M_cz71gRg09780674445406.webp?v=1781309346","url":"https:\/\/improvedinc.myshopify.com\/products\/in-defence-of-the-imagination-paperback","provider":"Improved Improper Input Inc.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}