Henry J Staten - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Henry J Staten

Eros in Mourning

Johns Hopkins University Press eBooks, 1994

Cavell vs. Wittgenstein on the Body-Mind Problem

New Literary History, Jun 1, 2022

Situated Subjects (Langston Hughes, “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” and “Song for a Black Girl”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

This highly original and important book demonstrates that Victorian England was the historical mo... more This highly original and important book demonstrates that Victorian England was the historical moment of a major transition from religious concepts of selfhood and morality to materialistic concepts of these. Henry Staten calls the latter "physio-psychology" or "psycho-physiology." The long introduction to this book is in two parts: a brilliantly learned intellectual history of the rise of physio-psychology by way of authors like Herbert Spencer, Alexander Bain, and George Eliot's consort, George Henry Lewes. These authors and their associates deeply influenced Friedrich Nietzsche's thinking about psychic energy flows and the will to power. Staten is in his previous work a keen interpreter of Nietzsche. He sums up as follows the consequences of this new mental materialism: And if mind is a natural phenomenon, then all its functions, including the moral will, should be explicable on the basis of purely natural facts. Human motivation must be explained on the basis not of the metaphysical conflict of good and evil, but of the energetic flows of physiology and of the socio-historical conditions that give new levels of organisation to these flows. But then, the moral ideology based on the concept of the supernatural soul loses its intellectual basis. (4)

The Problem of Nietzsche's Economy Reality shows us an enchanting wealth of types, the abundance of a lavish play and change offorms-and some wretched loafer of a moralist comments: "No! Man ought to be different." He even knows what man should be like, this wretched bigot and prig: he paints him...

Biosemiotics, 2022

How did molecules become signs? First, according to Deacon, there had to be an interpreter, a phy... more How did molecules become signs? First, according to Deacon, there had to be an interpreter, a physical process capable of making use of some property of a molecule that offered a "semiotic affordance." He proposes the model of an "autogenic virus," the most primitive conceivable recursively self-maintaining kind of molecular system that could broach the boundary between physico-chemical process and "interpretive competence." In this comment I work up to the question of how Deacon introduces concepts such as "representation" and "record" into his account, to argue that the autogen can pass on its lineage without a genetic template.

The Poetry of Ellipsis (Denise Riley, “A Nueva York”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

Is the Author Still Dead?

Springer eBooks, 2021

Poetic commentary (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)

Empirical, Transcendental, Ultratranscendental

Techne Theory: A New Language for Art

Modernist poetry and discursive logic (T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

The wrong turn of aesthetics

Bearing the Dead: The British Culture of Mourning from the Enlightenment to Victoria

Modern Language Review, Apr 1, 1997

Intellectual and Cultural Context (John Milton, “At a Solemn Music”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy

Modern Language Review, Jul 1, 1993

Modernism/modernity, 2000

The Craft of Poetry: Dialogues on Minimal Interpretation

Acknowledgments Introduction: Dialogical poetics Chapter 1: Minimal interpretation Chapter 2: Fig... more Acknowledgments Introduction: Dialogical poetics Chapter 1: Minimal interpretation Chapter 2: Figurative language Chapter 3: Historical context Chapter 4: Intellectual and cultural context Chapter 5: Situated subjects Chapter 6: Poetic commentary Chapter 7: Modernist poetry and discursive logic Chapter 8: The poetry of ellipsis Chapter 9: Translation Index

This book presents an innovative format for poetry criticism that its authors call "dialogical po... more This book presents an innovative format for poetry criticism that its authors call "dialogical poetics." This approach shows that readings of poems, which in academic literary criticism often look like a product of settled knowledge, are in reality a continual negotiation between readers. Here, Derek Attridge and Henry Staten agree to rein in their own interpretive ingenuity and "minimally interpret" poemsreading them with careful regard for what the poem can be shown to actually say, in detail and as a whole, from opening to closure. Based on a series of e-mails, the book explores a number of topics in the reading of poetry, including historical and intellectual context, modernist difficulty, the role of criticism, and translation. This highly readable book will appeal to anyone who enjoys poetry, offering an inspiring resource for students whilst also mounting a challenge to some of the approaches to poetry currently widespread in the academy.

Eros in Mourning

Johns Hopkins University Press eBooks, 1994

Cavell vs. Wittgenstein on the Body-Mind Problem

New Literary History, Jun 1, 2022

Situated Subjects (Langston Hughes, “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” and “Song for a Black Girl”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

This highly original and important book demonstrates that Victorian England was the historical mo... more This highly original and important book demonstrates that Victorian England was the historical moment of a major transition from religious concepts of selfhood and morality to materialistic concepts of these. Henry Staten calls the latter "physio-psychology" or "psycho-physiology." The long introduction to this book is in two parts: a brilliantly learned intellectual history of the rise of physio-psychology by way of authors like Herbert Spencer, Alexander Bain, and George Eliot's consort, George Henry Lewes. These authors and their associates deeply influenced Friedrich Nietzsche's thinking about psychic energy flows and the will to power. Staten is in his previous work a keen interpreter of Nietzsche. He sums up as follows the consequences of this new mental materialism: And if mind is a natural phenomenon, then all its functions, including the moral will, should be explicable on the basis of purely natural facts. Human motivation must be explained on the basis not of the metaphysical conflict of good and evil, but of the energetic flows of physiology and of the socio-historical conditions that give new levels of organisation to these flows. But then, the moral ideology based on the concept of the supernatural soul loses its intellectual basis. (4)

The Problem of Nietzsche's Economy Reality shows us an enchanting wealth of types, the abundance of a lavish play and change offorms-and some wretched loafer of a moralist comments: "No! Man ought to be different." He even knows what man should be like, this wretched bigot and prig: he paints him...

Biosemiotics, 2022

How did molecules become signs? First, according to Deacon, there had to be an interpreter, a phy... more How did molecules become signs? First, according to Deacon, there had to be an interpreter, a physical process capable of making use of some property of a molecule that offered a "semiotic affordance." He proposes the model of an "autogenic virus," the most primitive conceivable recursively self-maintaining kind of molecular system that could broach the boundary between physico-chemical process and "interpretive competence." In this comment I work up to the question of how Deacon introduces concepts such as "representation" and "record" into his account, to argue that the autogen can pass on its lineage without a genetic template.

The Poetry of Ellipsis (Denise Riley, “A Nueva York”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

Is the Author Still Dead?

Springer eBooks, 2021

Poetic commentary (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)

Empirical, Transcendental, Ultratranscendental

Techne Theory: A New Language for Art

Modernist poetry and discursive logic (T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

The wrong turn of aesthetics

Bearing the Dead: The British Culture of Mourning from the Enlightenment to Victoria

Modern Language Review, Apr 1, 1997

Intellectual and Cultural Context (John Milton, “At a Solemn Music”)

Routledge eBooks, Apr 17, 2015

Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy

Modern Language Review, Jul 1, 1993

Modernism/modernity, 2000

The Craft of Poetry: Dialogues on Minimal Interpretation

Acknowledgments Introduction: Dialogical poetics Chapter 1: Minimal interpretation Chapter 2: Fig... more Acknowledgments Introduction: Dialogical poetics Chapter 1: Minimal interpretation Chapter 2: Figurative language Chapter 3: Historical context Chapter 4: Intellectual and cultural context Chapter 5: Situated subjects Chapter 6: Poetic commentary Chapter 7: Modernist poetry and discursive logic Chapter 8: The poetry of ellipsis Chapter 9: Translation Index

This book presents an innovative format for poetry criticism that its authors call "dialogical po... more This book presents an innovative format for poetry criticism that its authors call "dialogical poetics." This approach shows that readings of poems, which in academic literary criticism often look like a product of settled knowledge, are in reality a continual negotiation between readers. Here, Derek Attridge and Henry Staten agree to rein in their own interpretive ingenuity and "minimally interpret" poemsreading them with careful regard for what the poem can be shown to actually say, in detail and as a whole, from opening to closure. Based on a series of e-mails, the book explores a number of topics in the reading of poetry, including historical and intellectual context, modernist difficulty, the role of criticism, and translation. This highly readable book will appeal to anyone who enjoys poetry, offering an inspiring resource for students whilst also mounting a challenge to some of the approaches to poetry currently widespread in the academy.