Ben De Bruyn | UCLouvain (University of Louvain) (original) (raw)
Uploads
New by Ben De Bruyn
Books and Special Issues by Ben De Bruyn
Although Wolfgang Iser is one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century... more Although Wolfgang Iser is one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century, there is no authoritative study about his oeuvre. The present work remedies that problem by analysing Iser’s German and English writings in detail. Apart from being the first comprehensive account of his work, this study also modifies the established view of Iser’s theory. In contrast to the idea that his only contribution to literary studies is the reception theory of the 1970s, this account demonstrates the importance of Iser’s work on history and anthropology from the 1950s and 1990s. Instead of exclusively focusing on familiar terms such as ‘indeterminacy’, this analysis also discusses Iser’s view of modernity, fiction and culture. As this discussion shows, his writings develop a consistent theory of the novel and the way in which it allows its readers to articulate new views of reality. To situate this theory, Iser’s institutional and intellectual background is described as well, paying special attention to the Poetik und Hermeneutik-circle and thinkers like Blumenberg and Kermode. The continued relevance of his theory is demonstrated via comparisons with recent research on the novel and memory as well as examples from contemporary novelists like Juli Zeh and Hilary Mantel.
Literature and Environment by Ben De Bruyn
Although Wolfgang Iser is one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century... more Although Wolfgang Iser is one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century, there is no authoritative study about his oeuvre. The present work remedies that problem by analysing Iser’s German and English writings in detail. Apart from being the first comprehensive account of his work, this study also modifies the established view of Iser’s theory. In contrast to the idea that his only contribution to literary studies is the reception theory of the 1970s, this account demonstrates the importance of Iser’s work on history and anthropology from the 1950s and 1990s. Instead of exclusively focusing on familiar terms such as ‘indeterminacy’, this analysis also discusses Iser’s view of modernity, fiction and culture. As this discussion shows, his writings develop a consistent theory of the novel and the way in which it allows its readers to articulate new views of reality. To situate this theory, Iser’s institutional and intellectual background is described as well, paying special attention to the Poetik und Hermeneutik-circle and thinkers like Blumenberg and Kermode. The continued relevance of his theory is demonstrated via comparisons with recent research on the novel and memory as well as examples from contemporary novelists like Juli Zeh and Hilary Mantel.
Journal of Dutch Literature 4.2, pp. 68-91, 2013
Oxford Literary Review, Jan 2010
KULeuven. ...
English Studies, Jan 2010
The following essay discusses Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006) and its evocation of a post-apoca... more The following essay discusses Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006) and its evocation of a post-apocalyptic ecology and memory. Drawing on certain insights from Robert Pogue Harrison's work on the cultural role of forests, gardens and the dead ancestor, it sheds light on various enigmatic aspects of McCarthy's novel, including the unspecified cause of the disaster, the future fate of nature and culture, and the elusive final paragraph.
Key Terms for Literary History
American Literary Tourism, ed. by Jennifer Harris and Hilary Iris Lowe
China Miéville. Critical Essays, ed. by Caroline Edwards and Antonio Venezia (Gylphi)
Neohelicon, 2015
This paper explores the tension between social elites and consumer culture in the 1930s by analyz... more This paper explores the tension between social elites and consumer culture in the 1930s by analyzing the representation of shops, objects and (non)capitalist modes of circulation in stories by Evelyn Waugh, F. Scott Fitzgerald and H.P. Lovecraft. Although these authors wrote different forms of literature about distinct types of aristocrats, they highlight a similar struggle between consumer goods and various non-commercial objects, like non-portable heirlooms, alluring commodities and alien alloys.
Inspired by Leah Price's recent plea on behalf of the study of ‘nonreading’ and literary logistic... more Inspired by Leah Price's recent plea on behalf of the study of ‘nonreading’ and literary logistics, this essay reconstructs a slice of the history of reading locations by analysing the decoration advice, the changing symbolic associations and the modes of print circulation connected with private libraries and toilets in the writings of two modern authors: Edith Wharton and Henry Miller.
Image&Narrative 14.3, 2013
Nederlandse Letterkunde, Dec 2012
Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal-en Letterkunde, Jan 2012
Article en cours d'évaluation
Notion à double face – elle relève d’une ordre social et touche dans le même temps celui des vale... more Notion à double face – elle relève d’une ordre social et touche dans le même temps celui des valeurs –, et qui relève pas de l’ordre des catégories littéraires, la noblesse apparaît comme un imaginaire qui sous-tend une large part de la littérature européenne de l’entre-deux-guerre. L’idée de noblesse constitue dans cette optique un référent central d’une frange importante du discours essayistique de la période. D’Oswald Spengler à Denis de Rougemont en passant par José Ortega y Gasset Participant à plusieurs égards de ce courant de pensée, un critique comme Gabriel Bounoure se distingue en ce qu’il apparaît, davantage que comme un penseur qui intègre la littérature à une réflexion globale sur la civilisation, comme un critique qui ponctue fréquemment ses essais de notations relatives à l’histoire récente du monde occidental. Dans ces textes, Bounoure confère à la notion de noblesse une fonction de clé de voûte dans la conception qu’il développe, article après article, de la poésie moderne, dont il fait un des lieux par excellence du maintien de valeurs civilisationnelles tenues pour éminemment aristocratiques.
Les Lettres Romanes, 2012
Exploring Visual Literacy Inside, Outside and through the Frame, ed. by Aundreta Conner Farris and Frieda Pattenden
Cahier voor Literatuurwetenschap, 2011
Art and Life in Aestheticism, Jan 2008
KULeuven. ...
Spiegel der Letteren, 2008
Image & Narrative, Jan 1, 2006
Abstract (E): This article discusses Hans Belting's attempt to extrapolate the literary ... more Abstract (E): This article discusses Hans Belting's attempt to extrapolate the literary anthropology of Wolfgang Iser to the visual arts. Clearly drawing upon Iser, Belting's “anthropological” criticism underlines the actor-like nature of man as well as the attempt of ...
Journal of Literature and Science 6.2, pp. 46-7, 2013
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16.3, pp. 380-384, Jun 2013
Spiegel der Letteren, 2012
Spiegel der Letteren, 2010
Spiegel der Letteren, 2008
Journal of Literary Theory, 2007
This special issue considers the ways in which contemporary American fiction seeks to imagine a m... more This special issue considers the ways in which contemporary American fiction seeks to imagine a mode of ‘planetary memory’ able to address the scalar and systemic complexities of the Anthropocene – the epoch in which the combined activity of the human species has become a geological force in its own right. As Naomi Klein has recently argued, confronting the problem of anthropogenic climate change alters everything we know about the world: demanding wholesale recalibration of economic and political priorities; destabilising the epistemic frameworks through which quotidian life is interpreted and enacted; and decentring the dominant cultural imaginaries that seek to give form to historical and future experience.
Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal-en Letterkunde, Jan 2012
In reaction to Thomas Vaessens' De revanche van de roman, this article emphasizes the importance ... more In reaction to Thomas Vaessens' De revanche van de roman, this article emphasizes the importance of popular culture to contemporary novels in Dutch. Applying Jim Collins' account of 'popular literary culture' in the US to recent Dutch and Flemish literature, the article analyzes the interaction between literary reading and popular culture in novels by Marjolijn Februari, Christiaan Weijts, Joost Vandecasteele and Jeroen Brouwers. What is ultimately crucial about these novels, it is argued, is not the distinction between novels that embrace and that distance themselves from popular culture but the shared interest in visual media and quality consumerism (food, fashion, tourism).