The Genre of the Non-Finito: Thomas Traherne's Ways of Centrifugal Writing

This article offers a fundamental re-evaluation of Thomas Traherne's writing style through an examination of the typographic, calligraphic, and syntactic features of his texts as well as through a consideration of select topoi . In juxtaposing poems in Traherne's and his brother's han...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhelezcheva, Tanya (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press [2016]
In: Literature and theology
Year: 2016, Volume: 30, Issue: 3, Pages: 309-329
IxTheo Classification:CD Christianity and Culture
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:This article offers a fundamental re-evaluation of Thomas Traherne's writing style through an examination of the typographic, calligraphic, and syntactic features of his texts as well as through a consideration of select topoi . In juxtaposing poems in Traherne's and his brother's hands, the article argues that Thomas' method of composition is founded on the centrifugal rather than centripetal forces of writing in order to produce generative texts which are manifested in the unfinished state of most of his works. This helps us to identify the genre of the non-finito as a genre which privileges the act of reading in rather than reading through as well as the practice of writing rather than the theory of writing.
ISSN:1477-4623
Contains:Enthalten in: Literature and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frv008