The Dead and the Quick: Cliches and Neologisms in the Written, Spoken and Visual Cultures of Britain, the United States and France

Author:   Walter Redfern
Publisher:   Academica Press
Edition:   New ed.
ISBN:  

9781933146768


Pages:   324
Publication Date:   15 September 2009
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
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The Dead and the Quick: Cliches and Neologisms in the Written, Spoken and Visual Cultures of Britain, the United States and France


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Overview

This work is a major contribution to the study of cliches and neologisms since it moves beyond considering them separately into their interlinked role in written,spoken and visual cultures in contemporary Britain, France and the United States. The general line of attack is a view of language as both reactionary and revolutionary. Language, Dr. Redfern points out, connives in our clinging to obsolete “realities”, and yet is constantly evolving by processes of displacement and substitution. Despite the allegedly static nature of cliché, this study focuses on the dynamic potentialities of language, whether via the reanimation of moribund ideas or by coinages from scratch. Among the many closely related analyzed in depth are: imitation,rumor, political correctness, jargon, euphemism, plagiarism, stereotyping (racial or otherwise), repetition, and caricature. This leads to a broader assessment of unthinking prose in English and French (“constipated thinking”) as well as various tactics for resisting and countervailing such practices. Linguistic creativity is discussed and the widespread hostility to new words is demonstrated by discussions of language purification and other protection systems. As well as written and spoken forms of cliché and neologism, Redfern studies the visual domain (e.g. kitsch and the neomorphisms of psychotics)in a brief, witty summary of the issues at hand.

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Author:   Walter Redfern
Publisher:   Academica Press
Imprint:   Academica Press
Edition:   New ed.
ISBN:  

9781933146768


ISBN 10:   1933146761
Pages:   324
Publication Date:   15 September 2009
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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