A History Of Ambiguity

Description

Ever since it was first published in 1930, William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity has been perceived as a milestone in literary criticism—far from being an impediment to communication, ambiguity now seemed an index of poetic richness and expressive power. Little, however, has been written on the broader trajectory of Western thought about ambiguity before Empson; as a result, the nature of his innovation has been poorly understood. A History of Ambiguity remedies this omission. Starting with classical grammar and rhetoric, and moving on to moral theology, law, biblical exegesis, German philosophy, and literary criticism, Anthony Ossa-Richardson explores the many ways in which readers and theorists posited, denied, conceptualised, and argued over the existence of multiple meanings in texts between antiquity and the twentieth century. This process took on a variety of interconnected forms, from the Renaissance delight in the ‘elegance’ of ambiguities in Horace, through the extraordinary Catholic claim that Scripture could contain multiple literal—and not just allegorical—senses, to the theory of dramatic irony developed in the nineteenth century, a theory intertwined with discoveries of the double meanings in Greek tragedy. Such narratives are not merely of antiquarian interest: rather, they provide an insight into the foundations of modern criticism, revealing deep resonances between acts of interpretation in disparate eras and contexts. A History of Ambiguity lays bare the long tradition of efforts to liberate language, and even a poet’s intention, from the strictures of a single meaning. Cover......Page 1 Title Page ......Page 4 Copyright Page ......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 Illustrations......Page 10 Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 12 Abbreviations......Page 14 A Note on Citations and Translations......Page 16 Introduction: A Company of Two Armies......Page 20 Part One: Themes......Page 44 Chapter One: The Old Rhetoric......Page 46 Chapter Two: Forensic Idols......Page 92 Chapter Three: Collusion and Delusion......Page 118 Chapter Four: River and Ocean......Page 148 Chapter Five: Satura Lanx......Page 204 Part Two: Variations......Page 256 Chapter Six: The Faultless Die......Page 258 Chapter Seven: Ambiguities of Type......Page 303 Chapter Eight: Adloyada......Page 325 Chapter Nine: An Equivocal Smile......Page 345 Chapter Ten: The Combination Room......Page 383 Afterword......Page 421 Bibliography......Page 424 Index......Page 474