History without End(s) The Aesthetics and Politics of the Reading Play

• Published in: Crossing Central Europe pp. 80 - 99
• Main Author: Szeman, Imre
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto University of Toronto Press 17.04.2017
• Subjects: Anthropology; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Capitalism; Cognitive psychology; Comparative literature; Desire; Economic theory; Economics; Emotion; Emotional states; Ethnography; Ethnology; European studies; French literature; Historical methodology; Historiography; History; Irish culture; Irish literature; Irish studies; Literary genres; Literary studies; Literature; Narrative history; Performing arts; Poetry; Political change; Political history; Political processes; Political revolutions; Political science; Politics; Psychology; Temptation; Theater; Theater history; Theatrical genres; Tragic theater; World literature
• ISBN: 1442649143; 9781442649149
• DOI: 10.3138/9781487514686-005

Although we have come to talk freely and easily about the politics of literature, it is in fact extremely difficult to name and narrate a connection between the two,especiallyin the most vulgar way in which one might hope to relate them – that is, with respect to the production ofsubstantive and directpolitical change: change in policy, change in government, or change from right to left. Rather, literature has typically occupied a different realm of the political than this vulgar one – a broader, no less important sphere of impact and effect than those just named, and one that