{"product_id":"obscure-invitations-benjamin-widiss-9780804773225","title":"Obscure Invitations: The Persistence of the Author in Twentieth-Century American Literature","description":"Literary studies in the postwar era have consistently barred attributing specific intentions to authors based on textual evidence or ascribing textual presences to the authors themselves. \u003ci\u003eObscure Invitations\u003c\/i\u003e argues that this taboo has blinded us to fundamental elements of twentieth-century literature. Widiss focuses on the particularly self-conscious constructions of authorship that characterize modernist and postmodernist writing, elaborating the narrative strategies they demand and the reading practices they yield. He reveals that apparent manifestations of \"the death of the author\" and of the \"free play\" of language are performances that ultimately affirm authorial control of text and reader. The book significantly revises received understandings of central texts by Faulkner, Stein, and Nabokov. It then discusses Eggers' \u003ci\u003eHeartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius\u003c\/i\u003e and the films \u003ci\u003eSeven\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Usual Suspects\u003c\/i\u003e, demonstrating that each is a highly self-aware rebuttal of the notion of authorial absence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Benjamin Widiss\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 080477322X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780804773225\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 220\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.10w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2012","brand":"Benjamin Widiss","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46250448683263,"sku":"9780804773225","price":105.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ca94b0c7-5fb6-4fcf-9072-f771b44a4730.jpg?v=1729600352","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/obscure-invitations-benjamin-widiss-9780804773225","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}