Focusing on specimens of discourse where criticism assumes a flagrantly bucolic persona, Archeologies of Invective investigates hitherto little acknowledged contexts of irony, aggressivity, and vilification.
American poet, photographer, and literary scholar Eisenhower traces the role of invective in literature from Virgil to the present. The derogation of colleagues, schools of thought, or styles of writing are objectionable, he admits, but scholars too easily confuse the literal and the figurative, and their concern to enforce proper discourse degrades to prissy fear. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
