The Fate of the Self: German Writers and French Theory - Softcover

"The question of the self has not gone away, and Corngold is one of the first critics in the U. S. to have taken it up again in the wake of the poststructuralist polemical proclamation of the death of the subject."-Mihai I. Spariosu, University of Georgia "An impressive tour de force. . . . The Fate of the Self is precisely the kind of book one will want to read closely, learn from appreciatively, and engage in strenuous debate."-Dominick LaCapra, Cornell University "The Fate of the Self is a daring and independent work-daring in the scope of its inclusions, independent in its attitude toward received ideas in literary theory. It brings intellectual history and literary criticism together, without slighting either."-Allan Megill, University of Virginia

Much recent critical theory has dismissed or failed to take seriously the question of the self. French theorists-such as Derrida, Barthes, Benveniste, Foucault, Lacan, and Levi-Strauss-have in various ways proclaimed the death of the subject, often turning to German intellectual tradition to authorize their views. Stanley Corngold's heralded book, The Fate of the Self, published for the first time in paperback with a spirited new preface, appears at a time when the relationship between the self and literature is a matter of renewed concern. Originally published in 1986 (Columbia University Press), the book examines the poetic self of German intellectual tradition in light of recent French and American critical theory. Focusing on seven major German writers-Hoelderlin, Dilthey, Nietzsche, Mann, Kafka, Freud, and Heidegger-Corngold shows that their work does not support the desire to discredit the self as an origin of meaning and value but reconstructs the allegedly fragmented poetic self through effects of position and style. Offering new and subtle models of selfhood, The Fate of the Self is a source of rich insight into the work of these authors, refracted through poststructuralist critical perspectives.