Published: 2020-12-30

Hidden, Overt, Distanced: On Richard Shusterman’s The Adventures of the Man in Gold: Paths between Art and Life. A Philosophical Tale

Anna Budziak

(A Book Review in Polish)

Abstract

The proposed discussion of Richard Shusterman’s The Adventures of the Man in Gold focuses on the literary-generic features of the text and the new ways in which it deploys several established thematic motifs. The tale is read as constituting not only a conte philosophique, but also a photo essay reviving the tradition of the paragone – the ancient rivalry of the image and the word – as well as the fairy tale, the quest-romance, and the fantastic story exploring the theme of the doppelgänger. This last motif is viewed in the context of, among other things, Shusterman’s essay on Wilde and Eliot, where he considers the contrastive ways in which they fashioned their public images. Shusterman’s book, containing autobiographical elements, is also discussed in terms of the relationships emerging among the implied author, the narrator, and the protagonist, with the emphasis put on the irony in the text which, rather teasingly, both asserts and denies the identity of the three personalities. And yet, even if Shusterman expertly uses irony to allow these three personae to retain their distinctiveness, the Man in Gold – a literary ingénu – can be viewed as the opposite of the figure of the Rortian ironist.

Citation rules

Budziak, A. (2020). Hidden, Overt, Distanced: On Richard Shusterman’s <i>The Adventures of the Man in Gold: Paths between Art and Life. A Philosophical Tale</i>: (A Book Review in Polish). Er(r)go. Theory - Literature - Culture, 2(41), 203–215. https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.7417

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No. 41 (2020)
Published: 2021-02-06


ISSN: 1508-6305
eISSN: 2544-3186
Ikona DOI 10.31261/errgo

Publisher
University of Silesia Press | Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego i Wydawnictwo Naukowe "Śląsk"

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