Publisher Description

In Loaded Words the inimitable literary and cultural critic Marjorie Garber invites readers to join her in a rigorous and exuberant exploration of language. What links the pieces included in this vibrant new collection is the author's contention that all words are inescapably loaded—that is, highly charged, explosive, substantial, intoxicating, fruitful, and overbrimming—and that such loading is what makes language matter.
Garber casts her keen eye on terms from knowledge, belief, madness, interruption, genius, and celebrity to humanities, general education, and academia. Included here are an array of stirring essays, from the title piece, with its demonstration of the importance of language to our thinking about the world; to the superb "Mad Lib," on the concept of madness from Mad magazine to debates between Foucault and Derrida; to pieces on Shakespeare, "the most culturally loaded name of our time," and the Renaissance.
With its wide range of cultural references and engaging style coupled with fresh intellectual inquiry, Loaded Words will draw in and enchant scholars, students, and general readers alike.

Notes

A rigorous and exuberant exploration of language

Author Biography

Marjorie Garber is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. Her many books include Loaded Words (Fordham); Symptoms of Culture; Quotation Marks; Shakespeare After All; Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety; and The Use and Abuse of Literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Loaded Questions Part I 1 Loaded Words 2 Good to Think With 3 Mad Lib 4 Third Person Interruption 5 Our Genius Problem 6 Anatomy of a Honey Trap 7 Dig It: Searching for Fame in All the Wrong Places Part II 8 Shakespeare in Slow Motion 9 Character Flaws 10 The Marvel of Peru 11 Translating F.O. Matthiessen 12 The Shakespeare Brand Part III 13 After the Humanities 14 The Gypsy Scholar and the Scholar Gypsy 15 Radical Numbers 16 General Education

Review

Praise for Marjorie Garber: "Garber's is the most exhilarating seminar room you'll ever enter." NEWSWEEK magazine, review of Shakespeare After All (a top five best nonfiction book of 2004) "[Garber's] gift for analytical gab has few rivals... [a] lucid synthesis of detail, documents, and historical fact." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, review of Symptoms of Culture "Erudite and stimulating... Garber is warmly clarifying and acerbically entertaining." BOOKLIST, review of The Use and Abuse of Literature "Masterfully bridging the gap between high culture and low, Garber's witty, accessible essays give us surprising angles on a host of topics." JONATHAN CULLER, Cornell University

Promotional

A rigorous and exuberant exploration of language

Long Description

In Loaded Words the inimitable literary and cultural critic Marjorie Garber invites readers to join her in a rigorous and exuberant exploration of language. What links the pieces included in this vibrant new collection is the author's contention that all words are inescapably loaded--that is, highly charged, explosive, substantial, intoxicating, fruitful, and overbrimming--and that such loading is what makes language matter. Garber casts her keen eye on terms from knowledge, belief, madness, interruption, genius, and celebrity to humanities, general education, and academia. Included here are an array of stirring essays, from the title piece, with its demonstration of the importance of language to our thinking about the world; to the superb "Mad Lib," on the concept of madness from Mad magazine to debates between Foucault and Derrida; to pieces on Shakespeare, "the most culturally loaded name of our time," and the Renaissance. With its wide range of cultural references and engaging style coupled with fresh intellectual inquiry, Loaded Words will draw in and enchant scholars, students, and general readers alike.

Review Text

"Self-styled 'peripatetic writer,' Harvard Shakespearean, and culture critic Garber collects loosely connected but fascinating essays on a range of themes." --Publishers Weekly

Review Quote

Self-styled 'peripatetic writer,' Harvard Shakespearean, and culture critic Garber collects loosely connected but fascinating essays on a range of themes.

Promotional "Headline"

One of our most important cultural critics, at the top of her form, comments on a wide range of topics in both general and academic culture.

Details