First pages : a poetics of titles
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
First pages : a poetics of titles
Pennsylvania State University Press, c2008
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-353) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
"Titology," a term first coined in 1977 by literary critic Harry Levin, is the field of literary studies that focuses on the significance of a title in establishing the thematic developments of the pages that follow. While the term has been used in the literary community for thirty years, this book presents for the first time a thoroughly developed theoretical discussion on the significance of the title as a foundation for scholarly criticism.
Though Maiorino acknowledges that many titles are superficial and "indexical," there exists a separate and more complex class of titles that do much more than simply decorate a book's spine. To prove this argument, Maiorino analyzes a wide range of examples from the modern era through high modernism to postmodernism, with writings spanning the globe from Spain and France to Germany and America. By examining works such as Essais, The Waste Land, Ulysses, and Don Quixote, First Pages proves the power of the title to connect the reader to the thematic, cultural, and literary context of the writing as a whole. Much like a facade to a building, the title page serves as the frontispiece of literature, a sign that offers perspective and demands interpretation.
Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Frontispiece of Literature
Modern
1. At the Top of the Page and Below the Frame: Arcadia, Concert Champetre, and Pastoral Titles
2. The Title's Novelistic Birthmark: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y sus fortunas y adversidades
3. From Title to Genre: Essaying at the Threshold of Form
Modernist
4. Title Translated into Title: Ulysses
5. The Waste Land: The Archaeology of Titles
6. Off the Page and onto the Stage: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore
7. Between Expectation and Explanation: Waiting for Godot
8. The Dustbin of Titles: From "The Literature of Exhaustion" to "The Literature of Replenishment"
Postmodern
9. "La biblioteca de Babel": The Archititle in a Library of Titles
10. Cervantine First Pages: The Inadequacies of Retitling
11. The Picaresque and the Quixotic: An Adventure in Titology
12. Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore: Et cetera, Et cetera
13. After the End of Art: The Obituary of Titles
14 The Literature of Titles
Notes
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"