The Unfamiliar Hardy : A Fresh Look

Contents: Introduction. I. Invoking the ancient myths: 1. The arrival of meaning: use of ancient myths in Hady\'s poetry. 2. "To name the unnamable: Hardy\'s use of classical myths in fiction. II. The instincts of Merry England: 3. Hardy\'s laughing people: The instincts of Merry England. 4. Parodia Sacra : profanation of the sacred in Hardy\'s fiction. 5. Lent and Carnival: the structural Dyads in Hardy\'s fiction. 6. The Carnival reversed: yearning after annihilation and schopenhauer. III. Forms/narrative art: 7. Traditional Ballads and Hardy\'s stories: reverberations and echoes. 8. That sonorous and immense world: listening to the resonant world of Hardy\'s prose. 9. Thomas Hardy, Jocelyn Pierston a the farewell to fiction. Bibliography. Index.

"Thomas Hardy who has perpetually sought to grasp and interpret an ever-eluding pattern behind the tragic chaos of human life, remains himself elusive for critics even after eight decades of his death. Apparently Hardy continues to be a challenge to critics, as he refuse to be defined by any comfortable definition: any such attempt is bound to be reductive and to bounce thereby. Hardy was an with ahead of his time in many of his ideas and nature of perception; perhaps that partly explains the \'enigma\' that he may appear to critics. That also partly explains the way his writings lend themselves to many a modern and postmodern angle of study.

This volume looks at Hardy from certain critical and moratoria perspectives which are not commonly brought in to bear upon hardy studies. The essays included in this volume show an attempt to appreciate and enjoy Hardy from the variegated spectrum of approaches including myth criticism, carnival, culture study, phonoaesthetics, ballad narratology, etc.
It is the thrill of discovering the elusive, living flashes of life in Hardy even on his 170th birth anniversary that the author invites the reader to share. This refreshing and thorough study of Hardy\'s entire oeuvre, bearing mark of sound scholarship and original insight into the author, which is further enlivened by a genuine enjoyment of Hardy\'s writings, will be a valuable contribution to hardy criticism and a very useful companion to students, teachers and scholars of Hardy." (jacket)