Introduction: Influence: Form, Subjects, Time
Abstract
Writing never takes place in a vacuum, nor does reading. Both acts are always mediated by the writing or the reading of other texts, be they scripted, visual or otherwise symbolic. This much seems clear. If we wish to understand the nature of this mediation, just how much help can the notion of influence provide us? The term ‘influence’ is strikingly absent from the current critical vocabulary of literary scholarship and teaching. It is as if we have had to develop numerous other terms to articulate this mediation, whether it is explicit and manifest, needing only to be restated, or cloaked and covert, requiring extensive interpretive pressure to be teased out. Some of the terms used to describe this mediation of other texts are synonymous with influence, but most reflect a guarded reassessment of the notion, if not a critical one.
Keywords
Political Theory Literary Study French Study Positional Thinking Literary TextPreview
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Notes
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