Redeeming Words and the Promise of Happiness: A Critical Theory Approach to Wallace Stevens and Vladimir Nabokov

By David Michael Kleinberg-Levin

This book offers a philosophical reflection on the nature of language by reading some exemplary works of literature. Drawing on the thought of philosophers--especially Plato, Kant, Hegel, Emerson, Benjamin, Adorno, Heidegger and Wittgenstein, the author argues that language is the bearer of a utopian or messianic promise of happiness, and that by redeeming the revelatory power of words, the two writers in this study are contributing to the redemption of the promise of happiness in a world of reconciled antagonisms and contradictions.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739177516
• ISBN13: 9780739177518
• Release Date: August 2012
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"
• Age Range: All ages
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher