The Semantics Of Desire: Changing Models Of Identity From Dickens To Joyce
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A rigorous work of literary criticism, The Semantics of Desire: Changing Models of Identity from Dickens to Joyce presents a sweeping intellectual argument about the transformation of selfhood and desire in the Victorian and modernist novel. Philip M. Weinstein traces how major British and Irish writers—from Dickens through Hardy, George Eliot, and ultimately Joyce—constructed and deconstructed models of personal identity through the lens of desire, illustrating how the very language of the self shifts across a century of fiction. Drawing on psychoanalytic and structuralist frameworks, the study argues that desire is not merely a theme but a semantic force that reshapes narrative form and character consciousness across literary periods. Written with scholarly precision yet animated by genuine critical passion, the work rewards readers with a nuanced understanding of how subjectivity is encoded in the novel's language and structure. It stands as an essential text for students and scholars of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British literature, as well as those interested in the intersection of psychoanalysis, linguistics, and narrative theory.
Author: Philip M. Weinstein
Format: Hardback
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A rigorous work of literary criticism, The Semantics of Desire: Changing Models of Identity from Dickens to Joyce presents a sweeping intellectual argument about the transformation of selfhood and desire in the Victorian and modernist novel. Philip M. Weinstein traces how major British and Irish writers—from Dickens through Hardy, George Eliot, and ultimately Joyce—constructed and deconstructed models of personal identity through the lens of desire, illustrating how the very language of the self shifts across a century of fiction. Drawing on psychoanalytic and structuralist frameworks, the study argues that desire is not merely a theme but a semantic force that reshapes narrative form and character consciousness across literary periods. Written with scholarly precision yet animated by genuine critical passion, the work rewards readers with a nuanced understanding of how subjectivity is encoded in the novel's language and structure. It stands as an essential text for students and scholars of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British literature, as well as those interested in the intersection of psychoanalysis, linguistics, and narrative theory.