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THE WRITER WRITING:
PHILOSOPHIC ACTS IN LITERATURE
FRANCIS-NOEL THOMAS

© 1992 by Princeton University Press

CONTENTS

Foreword by Wayne C. Booth
Preface
Acknowledgements
ONE	The Writer Writing
TWO	'Intentions' and 'Purposes'      Interpretation and Actions      Intention and Historical Interpretation      Purpose and Literary Art
THREE	'Parody' or the Imitation of Disciplines
FOUR	Explanations      "Scientific" Explanation      "Processive" Explanation
FIVE	Bernard Shaw: Historical Explanation      "A Frankly Doctrinal Theatre"      G.B.S.      G.B.S. in the Theatre      G.B.S. as Historian      Saint Joan: The Argument and Function of the Preface      The Scope of the Play      The Play of Saint Joan: Structure and Mechanism      The Epilogue
SIX	Marcel Proust: Psychological Explanation      The Book and the Man      "Psychology in Space and Time"      The Syllabus of Errors      The Triumph of the Will      The Historical Author, the Narrator, and Their Books
SEVEN	Historical Interpretation: The Face of the Muse and the Baker's Daughter
Index

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece: Jan Vermeer, A Lady Writing (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art).

Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr. in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer.

Plate 1: Rogier van der Weyden, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts).

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lee Higginson. Coutesey, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Plate 2: Jan Vermeer, The Art of Painting (Vienna: Kunsthistorichesmuseum)

Plate 3: Jan Vermeer, detail: the face of the muse from Jan Vermeer, The Art of Painting (Vienna: Kunsthistorichesmuseum)

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