Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature

by Susan Stewart

Book by Stewart, Professor Susan A.

Genres: Research, Linguistics, Literary Criticism

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1979

About the author

Susan Stewart (born 1952) is an American poet, university professor and literary critic.

Professor Stewart holds degrees from Dickinson College (B.A. in English and Anthropology), the Johns Hopkins University (M.F.A. in Poetics) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in Folklore). She teaches the history of poetry, aesthetics, and the philosophy of literature, most recently at Princeton University.

Her poems have appeared in many journals including: The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tri-Quarterly, Gettysburg Review, Harper's, Georgia Review, Ploughshares, and Beloit Poetry Journal.

In the late 2000s she collaborated with composer James Primosch on a song cycle commissioned by the Chicago Symphony that premiered in the fall of 2009. She has served on the judging panel of the Wallace Stevens Award on six occasions.

In 2005 Professor Stewart was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

About her work, the poet and critic Allen Grossman has written, "Stewart has built a poetic syntax capable of conveying an utterly singular account of consciousness, by the light of which it is possible to see the structure of the human world with a new clarity and an unforeseen precision, possible only in her presence and by means of her art."

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sara]

jabberwocky

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While much of this is heavy-duty semiotic analysis (and therefore hard reading), there is much to be gleaned from Stewart's approach to nonsense, not as content but as process. She examines "how nonsense works," techniques for creating nonsense, and how people try to make sense of something that inherently makes none. For my interest in storytelling, folklore, and trance, this book addresses issues of paradox, "boundary play," and simultaneity that apply directly to folk stories and storytelling and how people get immersed in story. A tough read that is well worth the work.

[Andrew Sydlik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense and sometimes confusing book, especially in passages that talk more in the abstract realm. Cataloging actual examples of nonsense types helps, but even here, sometimes she uses the same examples for different types. For example, she uses Finnegan's Wake and Lost in the Funhouse to demonstrate both "playing with infinity" and "playing with simultaneity." Overall, her use of framing and play theory is useful in looking at both folklore and literary examples of common sense vs. nonsense operations, but the prose is a bit difficult to wade through at times.

[Hannah]

Part of my dislike of this book probably stems from my own unwillingness to dedicate too much time to grappling with it, and also from the unfortunate scheduling leaving me with not enough time or energy to always dedicate enough to it. But when I was reading, I found it at times interesting and at time an example of incredibly obtuse, roundabout scholarship. But there were also some shining moments where I thought I was really starting to understand things.

[Catalina Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read