Publisher's Synopsis
Early 20th-century literary critics Joseph Collins, Hermann Hesse, and Percy Lubbuck concluded that the pages of a book present a succession of moments that the reader visualizes and presents anew. He fears, moreover, that few will actually commit themselves to memory. Most are likely to soon disappear. As you turn these pages, you will (re)discover the value of the literary canon through the Self. Those sentiments sum up in a nutshell the objective of my examination of how the Self is formed, lost, and regained via creative attention to strategies to confront and define the Self and its distortions (the selves) in the emergence of an "I" on nigh every page of a canonical work. You can consider Confronting / Defining the Self: Formation and Dissolution of the 'I' from La Fayette to Grass as offering an apology for the study of literature and the humanities in an era when technology and commerce dominate our consciousness, drive our daily expectations, and shape our career goals.
