The Full-Knowing Reader Allusion and the Power of the Reader in the Western Literary Tradition
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Yale Univ Pr
- Publish date: 05/01/1998
Pucci begins with a discussion of modern and contemporary debates about allusion's function; offers a fresh definition of allusion that emphasizes readerly desire and the manifold meanings occasioned in allusion's best function; and considers ancient and medieval evidence of readerly power. Although Greeks and Romans described allusion in the context of a powerful reader, Pucci finds that allusion became a legitimated mode of literary discourse only after early Christian readers became meaning-makers, empowered to make sense of dissonant passages of Scripture. In a concluding chapter the author contemplates hypertext and allusion in other media.
"Pucci's prose style is admirably readable, lucid, and engaging, with enough surprises to keep even an empowered reader enthralled. I think this opus significant enough to be in every Library". -- Daryl Hine, editor of Ovid's Heroines: A Verse Translation of the "Heroides"