Ossa-Richardson 2019 Princeton Univ Press
| Ossa-Richardson A (2019) A history of ambiguity. Princeton Univ Press https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv80cd3c. |
Ossa-Richardson A (2019) Princeton Univ Press
Abstract: Ever since it was first published in 1930, William Empson'sSeven Types of Ambiguity has been perceived as a milestone in literary criticism-far from being an impediment to communication, ambiguity now seemed an index of poetic richness and expressive power. Little, however, has been written on the broader trajectory of Western thought about ambiguity before Empson; as a result, the nature of his innovation has been poorly understood.
A History of Ambiguity remedies this omission. Starting with classical grammar and rhetoric, and moving on to moral theology, law, biblical exegesis, German philosophy, and literary criticism, Anthony Ossa-Richardson explores the many ways in which readers and theorists posited, denied, conceptualised, and argued over the existence of multiple meanings in texts between antiquity and the twentieth century. This process took on a variety of interconnected forms, from the Renaissance delight in the 'elegance' of ambiguities in Horace, through the extraordinary Catholic claim that Scripture could contain multiple literal-and not just allegorical-senses, to the theory of dramatic irony developed in the nineteenth century, a theory intertwined with discoveries of the double meanings in Greek tragedy. Such narratives are not merely of antiquarian interest: rather, they provide an insight into the foundations of modern criticism, revealing deep resonances between acts of interpretation in disparate eras and contexts.A History of Ambiguity lays bare the long tradition of efforts to liberate language, and even a poet's intention, from the strictures of a single meaning.
• Bioblast editor: Gnaiger E
Selected quotes
- Doubt and plurality, or plenty, are the twin poles of ambiguity as it is studied in this book. .. The perception of plenty in a word, in a line, in a poem, makes us doubt which meaning is the right one.
- What Empson meant by ambiguity should not be taken for granted. His infamous definition is ‘any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language’. .. A few pages later he specifies both the subjective and the objective, doubt and plenty: ‘Ambiguity’ itself can mean an indecision as to what you mean, an intention to mean several things, a probability that one or other or both of two things has been meant, and the fact that a statement has several meanings.
- The emphasis on context to resolve apparent ambiguity is almost universal in works of classical hermeneutics, for instance in theology and law.
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Ambiguity crisis
