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Twilight of the Literary: Figures of Thought in the Age of Print
Twilight of the Literary Figures of Thought in the Age of Print Author:Terry Cochran In Western thought, the modern period signals a break with stagnant social formations, the advent of a new rationalism, and the emergence of a truly secular order, all in the context of an overarching globalization. In Twilight of the Literary, Terry Cochran links these developments with the rise of the book as the dominant medium fo... more »r recording, preserving, and disseminating thought. "By mastering foreign languages and reading widely, Cochran was able to write what amounts to two books in one, both focused on language. The first is historical. Beginning with Dante's defense of vernacular languages as alternatives to monolithic Latin, the author describes how this initiated the Babel of tongues expressed in rising city and national states … Cochran points out that now technology-driven nonprint media have overwhelmed the effort to systematize and control knowledge on behalf of the middle class. Cultural crisis ensues. The second book, interwoven with the first, offers a solution. Relying on neo- (or para-) Marxists … for whom history is a plurality of contested discourses—each dominated by a prince (à la Machiavelli) or class (à la Marx)—Cochran argues that hitherto powerless subaltern groups (e.g., colonized 'natives,' women, etc.) can exploit the current pandemonium and displace its capitalist rulers." —D. H. Stewart, Choice« less