The Fragment: Towards a History and Poetics of a Performative Genre

by Camelia Elias

This monograph is an interdisciplinary study of the concept of ‘fragment’ in literature and in critical and literary theory. It discusses the fragment’s performativity and function within a historical perspective, stretching from Heraclitus, via the German Romantics and European writers of the Modernist period, to American postmodern manifestations of the fragment.
This is the first history of the fragment to appear in English, and it is also the first attempt at producing a consistent taxonomy of literary and critical fragments. The fragments are categorised according to function, not author intention, and the study addresses a number of What constitutes the fragment, when the fragment can only be defined a posteriori ? Does the fragment begin on its own, or is it begun by others, writers and critics? Does it acquire a name of its own, or is it labelled by others?
All these questions revolve around issues of agency, and they are best discussed in terms of performativity, which means seeing fragments as acts of literature, acts of reading, acts of writing. The book demonstrates how a poetics of the fragment as a performative genre can be created, situating the fragment both as literature and as a phenomenon within postmodern criticism against the background of philosophy, art history, and theology.

Genres: Literary Criticism

397 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

http://www.cameliaelias.com/about-me-2/

Reviews

[Manna Hojda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camelia's multi-facetted take on the notion of the fragment is absolutely amazing. After reading about the fragment in its historical and poetical context, from Heraclitus to David Markson, one will only want to read fragments thereafter.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kept me company on a long flight. Will likely write on it eventually, possible implications.

[Names character in honor of Professor Elias]