Written with characteristic verve, Quotation Marks considers, among other subjects, how we depend upon the most quotable men and women in history, using great writers to bolster what we ourselves have to say. The entertaining turns and reversals of Marjorie Garber's arguments offer the rare pleasure of a true essayist.
...an erudite and absorbing introduction to the art of the essay and present-day literary thought. -- Gene Shaw, Library Journal
The nature of quotations, fashion, work, sequels, sexuality, the abbreviation Ms., Monica Lewinsky, textural editing in Shakespeare, literature, and human nature are all discussed in this widely varied group of essays by Garber (English, Harvard; Sex and Real Estate). Garber is especially discerning in her exploration of the media's failure to discuss Lewinsky's Jewishness, paintings of vegetables and their sexual symbolism, and the relationship between literary criticism and cultural studies, and her close reading of Shakespeare includes a fine understanding of how editing has continually adapted the meaning of the literature for each generation. Garber's evenhanded, friendly tone makes this an erudite and absorbing introduction to the art of the essay and present-day literary thought. Recommended for literature collections. - Library Journale.
Witty, wide-ranging, vigilant and fresh, Marjorie Garber pleasures the reading intellect on every page. The essays in Quotation Marks give good weight, clarifying our late-modern moment even as they beguile us. -- Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
The nature of quotations, fashion, work, sequels, sexuality, the abbreviation Ms., Monica Lewinsky, textural editing in Shakespeare, literature, and human nature are all discussed in this widely varied group of essays by Garber (English, Harvard; Sex and Real Estate). Garber is especially discerning in her exploration of the media's failure to discuss Lewinsky's Jewishness, paintings of vegetables and their sexual symbolism, and the relationship between literary criticism and cultural studies, and her close reading of Shakespeare includes a fine understanding of how editing has continually adapted the meaning of the literature for each generation. Garber's evenhanded, friendly tone makes this an erudite and absorbing introduction to the art of the essay and present-day literary thought. Recommended for literature collections. - Library Journal.
Marjorie Garber is Willam R Kenan Jr Professor of English and Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard. Her books Symptoms of Culture, Vested Interests, and Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life are available in paperback from Routledge. Her most recent books are Sex and Real Estate and Academic Instincts.