Walter Pater by Wolfgang Iser

Walter Pater by Wolfgang Iser

Wolfgang Iser's study of Walter Pater (1839-94) was first published in German in 1960. It places the English critic, essayist and novelist in a philosophical tradition whose major exponents were Hegel and Coleridge, at the same time showing how Pater differed crucially from these thinkers to become representative of a late Victorian culture critically poised in transition between Romanticism and Modernism. Pater's new definitions of 'beauty' and 'style' in art, his doctrine of 'art for art's sake', his preoccupation with aesthetic existence, his fascination with periods of balance and historical transition are seen in the light of his scepticism towards all systematisation and his view of art as countering human finiteness by capturing the intensity of the moment. This important book, which remains as illuminating now as when it first appeared, will interest those interested in philosophy and aesthetics and Pater specialists alike.

Wolfgang Iser is professor of comparative literature at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is best known for his works The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett; The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response; Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology; and The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521179287
ISBN 10	0521179289
Title	Walter Pater
Author	Wolfgang Iser
Series	European Studies In English Literature
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	2011-02-17
Number of pages	226
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.