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Greg Clingham's Johnson, Writing, and Memory

Greg Clingham's Johnson, Writing, and Memory Romanticism relevance than many a book that spends more stolid time in the presence of the great man. The question taken up in a stimulating Introduction is that of Johnson’s authority. How is it created textually? Why does it persist? Clingham dismisses the answer still common – especially in authoritativeoverview-historicist discourse – that Johnson’s rhetoric is an absolutist disallowing of minority voices, a taming of what lazily gets called ‘otherness’. His voice is so distinct, so powerful that it covers over the world. The argument continues that because this ‘authority’ is rhetorical it is artificial rather than ‘real’; it relies on a cultural sanctioning that has been (thankfully) superseded. The main problem with this is the naïve distinction it assumes between real and performed authority. To divorce rhetoric from some otherwise accessible ‘reality’ and to conclude that rhetoric cannot confer ‘real’ authority is highly questionable. What’s more, recognizing this error is central to the postmodern thinking to which most of the books criticized by Clingham pay lip service. What’s more, it wasn’t Derrida or Ricouer who first articulated the troubled relationship between rhetoric and truth; it is there in Johnson, constantly under the scrutiny of his powerful mind. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Romanticism Edinburgh University Press

Greg Clingham's Johnson, Writing, and Memory

Howe, Tony
Romanticism , Volume 13 (1): 86 – Apr 1, 2007
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
1354-991X
eISSN
1750-0192
DOI
10.3366/rom.2007.13.1.86
Publisher site
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Abstract

Romanticism relevance than many a book that spends more stolid time in the presence of the great man. The question taken up in a stimulating Introduction is that of Johnson’s authority. How is it created textually? Why does it persist? Clingham dismisses the answer still common – especially in authoritativeoverview-historicist discourse – that Johnson’s rhetoric is an absolutist disallowing of minority voices, a taming of what lazily gets called ‘otherness’. His voice is so distinct, so powerful that it covers over the world. The argument continues that because this ‘authority’ is rhetorical it is artificial rather than ‘real’; it relies on a cultural sanctioning that has been (thankfully) superseded. The main problem with this is the naïve distinction it assumes between real and performed authority. To divorce rhetoric from some otherwise accessible ‘reality’ and to conclude that rhetoric cannot confer ‘real’ authority is highly questionable. What’s more, recognizing this error is central to the postmodern thinking to which most of the books criticized by Clingham pay lip service. What’s more, it wasn’t Derrida or Ricouer who first articulated the troubled relationship between rhetoric and truth; it is there in Johnson, constantly under the scrutiny of his powerful mind.

Journal

Romanticism – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2007

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