Preuß K (2022)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2022
DOI: 10.1007/s12115-022-00789-7
Since there have been books, there has been a need to get rid of them. From powerful magical formulae and heretical wisdom to the early drafts of poetry, authorities and writers tried to remove certain texts from circulation, or tried to inhibit or steer their reception. In the first part, this article gives a brief overview of forms of book-disposal, voluntary and involuntary, in antiquity and points to their significance for Augustine of Hippo in particular. In a second section, the article features Augustine’s Revisions (Retractationes), a commentary on his own literary production and an innovative effort to gain control over the reception and interpretation of his own works. In this late retrospection, Augustine employs the persona of a self-critical author—fallible and pressed by the duties of his office but always in pursuit of God’s truth—that allows him to reconfigure his authorial past in relation to himself, his texts, and his audience. The article will trace the implications of Augustine’s self-fashioning for the recurrent problem of controlling the reception and interpretation of written works.
APA:
Preuß, K. (2022). Repression, Retraction? Re-reading!: Book-Destruction and Literary Self-Criticism in Augustine of Hippo. Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-022-00789-7
MLA:
Preuß, Kai. "Repression, Retraction? Re-reading!: Book-Destruction and Literary Self-Criticism in Augustine of Hippo." Society (2022).
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