Background
Clayton, Jay was born on July 11, 1951 in Dallas, Texas, United States. Son of John Bunyan III and Margaret Ann Clayton.
(This collection explores and clarifies two of the most co...)
This collection explores and clarifies two of the most contested ideas in literary theory - influence and intertextuality. The study of influence tends to centre on major authors and canonical works, identifying prior documents as sources or contexts for a given author. Intertextuality, on the other hand, is a concept unconcerned with authors as individuals; it treats all texts as part of a network of discourse that includes culture, history and social practices as well as other literary works. In thirteen essays drawing on the entire spectrum of English and American literary history, this volume considers the relationship between these two terms across the whole range of their usage.
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(In this important contribution to the poetics of fiction ...)
In this important contribution to the poetics of fiction Dr Jay Clayton examines the way the Romantic visionary moment alters narrative structure in the novel. This study provides the first account of the relationship between Romanticism and the English novel, giving detailed attention to the formal issues of genre and representation, as well as to the social and ethical assumptions that govern apparently formal considerations. Informed by literary, psychoanalytic and narrative theory, Romantic Vision and the Novel is written in a clear and forceful style that will help many readers come to terms with these difficult subjects. Through detailed and original interpretations of works by Richardson, Austen, Emily Bronte, Dickens, George Eliot and Lawrence, Clayton establishes the importance for what they can reveal about each other and for what their relationship reveals about the larger functional of literature in society.
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(The Pleasures of Babel acquaints the layperson and the ex...)
The Pleasures of Babel acquaints the layperson and the expert alike with the creative and intellectual achievements of America's multicultural society. Arguing that the present is "a great period of writing," Jay Clayton relates novels from the seventies, eighties, and nineties to the latest developments in literary theory. He offers a lucid, cutting-edge look at the often stormy relationship between contemporary literature and criticism. Avoiding theoretical jargon, Clayton systematically sets out to make sense of the critical movements of the last two decades: deconstruction, psychoanalysis, minority writing, multiculturalism, and feminism. In the course of clarifying the accomplishments of Barthes, Kristeva, Lyotard, Said, and others, the author discusses some of America's most prominent writers of fiction: Saul Bellow, Sandra Cisneros, E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, and many others. The result successfully weds a layperson's guide to recent criticism with a scholarly application of that criticism to the very works it concerns. In light of the current debates being waged over the canon and multiculturalism, The Pleasures of Babel should prove an indispensable tool for those engaged in the practice of literary criticism, as well as anyone concerned with the way in which narrative interacts with society.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195083733/?tag=2022091-20
author English language educator
Clayton, Jay was born on July 11, 1951 in Dallas, Texas, United States. Son of John Bunyan III and Margaret Ann Clayton.
Clayton attended the Hill School, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania before going to Yale University. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1979.
He has written on literature and digital technology, the representation of genetics in fiction and film, and literary theory. He is the William R. Kenan, Junior. Professor of English at Vanderbilt University.
He taught English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison before moving to Vanderbilt University in 1988.
He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999. As Chair of the English department at Vanderbilt from 2003 to 2010, he helped recruit renowned professors to the university.
His first book Romantic Vision and the Novel, published by Cambridge University Press in 1987, compared Victorian realist fiction with romantic poetry. His book on multiculturalism in American fiction and theory, Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory, published by Oxford University Press in 1993, was selected by Choice as An Outstanding Academic Book for 1995.
His most recent volume, Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture was published by Oxford University Press in 2003.
(In this important contribution to the poetics of fiction ...)
(The Pleasures of Babel acquaints the layperson and the ex...)
(This collection explores and clarifies two of the most co...)
(Brand New. In Stock. Will be shipped from US. Excellent C...)
Member Modern Language Association, Narative Society (first vice president), Poets and Writers, Dickens Society.
Married Ellen Wright, June 22, 1982. Children: James Wright, John Bunyan V.