Sounding the Classics: From Sophocles to Thomas Mann

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This text is a comparative study of 12 works of fiction broadly representative of the Western canon. Its aim is to discover what gives these 12 works their lasting appeal and vitality over and beyond their formal qualities. It focuses on the interplay of "text" and "subtext"within each work after defining these terms at the outset. It then compares 12 sample classics systematically in a conclusion that argues from the works themselves to classics in general. The key finding of this book is, that for a work of fiction to feel deep, whole, and great, as classics do, its text must be underpinned from start to finish by a subtext, or alternative reading, which calls that text itself into question.

Reviews

"At a time when scholars question the validity of a literary canon as well as any single interpretation of texts, Binion offers a boldly original and compelling explanation of why a dozen classics are classics and what they mean. Along the way he offers succinct, brilliant interpretations of the historical context of cultural developments throughout Western history as the book treats themes of guilt, alienation, friendship, Christianity, truth, family, sex, art, and death."-Stephen Kern author of The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918
"Dazzling new insights into the greatest books of the Western heritage. Binion does what none has done before: discovering the two basic archetypes (text and subtext) uniting a dozen otherwise divergent classics. Result: thereby this book on the classics has itself become a classic."-Peter Viereck Pulitzer winner and author of Tide and Continuities
"Sounding the Classics makes studious use of Binion's linguistic expertise, and of his thorough grasp of cultural and literary history, but above all [his analyses] are sustained and patient acts of attention, culminating in insights which are tactful in the deepest sense of that word, and which will be felt by sensitive readers to bring to full consciousness their experience of the texts in question."-Richard Wilbur American Poet Laureate

Author Bio

RUDOLPH BINION is Leff Professor of History at Brandeis University. He is the author of numerous works including Hitler Among the Germans (1979) and Love Beyond Death (1993).