Background
Lyons, John David was born on October 14, 1946 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Son of John Joseph and Loretta Francis (Feighery) Lyons.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
Dialectic of Discovery: Essays on the Teaching and Interpretation of Literature Presented to Lawrence E. Harvey (French Forum Monographs)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/091705850X/?tag=2022091-20
The Tragedy of Origins: Pierre Corneille & Historical Perspective
(Studying the relationship between tragedy and history in ...)
Studying the relationship between tragedy and history in early modern France, this book focuses on the work of Pierre Corneille. The writing of a tragedy takes place within a social context that deeply influences what constitutes 'history', 'tragedy', 'authority', and 'poetics'. Yet such concepts are also practices that in turn shape the society in which they occur. We cannot look to drama for a kind of fossilized footprint or photographic plate of the period in which a play was written nor can we assume that a playwright's images are simple escapes from a reality outside the theatre. The author's readings of five Cornelian tragedies - Horace, Cinna, Polyeucte, Sertorius, and Attila - lead to a sustained reflection on the tragic structure as a confrontation between the present and the past.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804726167/?tag=2022091-20
Exemplum: The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy (Princeton Legacy Library)
( Examples, crucial links between discourse and society's...)
Examples, crucial links between discourse and society's view of reality, have until now been largely neglected in literary criticism. In the first book-length study of the rhetoric of example, John Lyons situates this figure by comparing it with more frequently studied tropes such as metaphor and synecdoche, discusses meanings of the terms example and exemplum, and proposes a set of descriptive concepts for the study of example in early modern literature. Tracing its paradoxical nature back to Aristotle's Rhetoric, Lyons shows how exemplary rhetoric is caught between often competing aims of persuasive general statement and accurate representation. In French and Italian texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this dual task was rendered still more challenging by a transition to new sources of examples as the age of discovery brought increased emphasis on observation. The writers of this period were aware of a crisis in exemplary rhetoric, a situation in which serious questions were raised about how authors and audience would find a common ground in interpreting representative instances. Lyons's focus on the strategy of example leads to new readings of six major writers--Machiavelli, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Pascal, Descartes, and Marie de Lafayette. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691602689/?tag=2022091-20
- A Theatre of Disguise: Studies in French Baroque Drama, 1630-1660 (French drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism. Ba...)
John David Lyons
Edit Profile
John David Lyons, French, Italian and comparative literature educator. Recipient Robert Fish award for teaching Dartmouth College, 1978, Outstanding Teacher award University Virginia, 1996; Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1967, American Council of Learned Societies study fellow, 1978, National Endowment for Humanities fellow, 1985-1989, 92-93, Center for Advanced Studies University of Virginia fellow, 1987-1989.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Brown U., 1967; Master of Arts, Yale University, 1968; Doctor of Philosophy, Yale University, 1972.
Career
Assistant professor French, Italian and comparative literature, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 1972-1978; associate professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 1978-1982; professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 1982-1987; chairman comparative literature program, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 1981-1984; chairman, professor department French and Italian, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 1987.; director, American University Center for Film and Critical Studies, Paris, 1984-1985; professor French, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1987-1992; Commonwealth professor French, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, since 1993; department chairman, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1989-1992, 98-99.
Achievements
Works
book
-
Exemplum: The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy (Princeton Legacy Library)
( Examples, crucial links between discourse and society's...)
-
The Tragedy of Origins: Pierre Corneille & Historical Perspective
(Studying the relationship between tragedy and history in ...)
-
A Theatre of Disguise: Studies in French Baroque Drama, 1630-1660
(French drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism. Ba...)
- Dialectic of Discovery: Essays on the Teaching and Interpretation of Literature Presented to Lawrence E. Harvey (French Forum Monographs)
-
Exemplum: The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy (Princeton Legacy Library)
Connections
Married Patricia Stuart, July 31, 1971. 1 daughter, Jennifer Catherine.
