White James Boyd. The Edge of Meaning

Chicago&London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001. — 296 p.Certain questions are basic to the human condition: how we imagine the world, and ourselves and others within it; how we confront the constraints of language and the limits of our own minds; and how we use imagination to give meaning to past experiences and to shape future ones. These are the questions James Boyd White addresses in The Edge of Meaning, exploring each through its application to great works of Western culture — Huckleberry Finn, the Odyssey, and the paintings of Vermeer among them. In doing so, White creates a deeply moving and insightful book and presents an inspiring conception of mind, language, and the essence of living.Introduction: Beyond WordsThoreau's Walden: Sporting with Proud Reliance in the Fields of Air
Huckleberry Finn: Doing Whichever Come Handiest at the Time
The Odyssey: Living in a Land TransformedReading Greek: Autar ho ek limenos
Making Meaning in the Sentence
The Phaedrus: Philosophy, Rhetoric, and LoveFrost and Herbert: Poetry as Life
The Life of the Law as a Life of Writing
The Depth of Meaning in Vermeer