About the Author
Lawrence W. Fagg is a Research Professor of Nuclear Physics at Catholic University of America.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Becoming of Time integrates concepts of time derived from the physical sciences and world religions. This updated edition of the book examines various questions about time, including its origin, its relation to space and motion, its irreversible nature, the notion of timelessness, and the reality of the future. Lawrence W. Fagg contends that the use of spatial metaphors to describe time obscures its true character. He offers an alternative, non-spatial description of time by developing the concept of time as becoming.

SYNOPSIS

An anthology of exemplary readings by some of the twentieth century's foremost literary critics, Close Reading presents a wide range of responses to the question at the heart of literary criticism: how best to read a text to understand its meaning. The lively introduction and the selected essays provide an overview of close reading from New Criticism through poststructuralism, including works of feminist criticism, postcolonial theory, queer theory, new historicism, and more.

From a 1938 essay by John Crowe Ransom through the work of contemporary scholars, Close Reading highlights the interplay between critics-the ways they respond to and are influenced by others' works. To facilitate comparisons of methodology, the collection includes discussions of the same primary texts by scholars using different critical approaches. The essays focus on Hamlet, "Lycidas," "The Rape of the Lock," Ulysses, Invisible Man, Beloved, Jane Austen, John Keats, and Wallace Stevens and reveal not only what the contributors are reading, but also how they are reading. Frank Lentricchia and Andrew DuBois's collection is an essential tool for teaching the history and practice of close reading.

Contributors. Houston Baker, Roland Barthes, Homi Bhabha, R. P. Blackmur, Cleanth Brooks, Kenneth Burke, Paul de Man, Andrew DuBois, Stanley Fish, Catherine Gallagher, Sandra Gilbert, Stephen Greenblatt, Susan Gubar, Fredric Jameson, Murray Krieger, Frank Lentricchia, Franco Moretti, John Crowe Ransom, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Helen Vendler

Editor(s) Bio:
Frank Lentricchia is Katherine Everett Gilbert Professor of Literature at Duke University and author of numerous books including After the New Criticism, Ariel and the Police, and Modernist Quartet. His novel Lucchesi and The Whale and his collection Introducing Don DeLillo are published by Duke University Press.

Andrew DuBois is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English and American Language and Literature at Harvard University.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Barbara Adam

In this timely book, Lawrence Fagg gives substance and theories on the relation between science and religion. A gem for those who seek understanding beyond disciplinary boundaries.  — editor, Time & Society

Andy Helfner

Professor Fagg has made a fundamental contribution to our reflection upon time. His work immediately takes its place as a basic text for students and researchers, from college to seminary and university levels. One seldom encounters such a multi-faceted approach, and, as Fagg makes clear, nothing less is required if we are properly to appreciate the phenomenon of time.  — editor-in-chief, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science

Helga Nowotny

This lucid and wide-ranging study sets out to reconcile the objective and subjective perspectives in the investigation of the phenomenon of time. The author . . . explores the wondrous subtleties of time that modern physics continues to reveal, but complements them with the rich insights of the spiritual perspectives on time that the world's major religions have to offer.  — President, International Society for the Study of Time

Anthony M. Dugdale

This is a book about time, and two themes permeate the entire book: (1) religious and scientific insights concerning time are mutuall supporting; and (2) time cannot be spatialized, because the phenomenon of becoming cannot be captured spatially. The book is masterful in its presentation of the discussion of time in contemporary physics. Difficult problems are presented clearly and uncompromisingly, with the areas of experimental or theoretic uncertainty explicitly marked as such. . . . Not only is the author an accomplished physicist, but he is also capable of expressing the details of his field non-technically. . . . This book [will be] enormously useful as a conduit for teaching the relevant basics of contemporary theoretical physics in a religion-friendly context . . . [and] is a much-needed weapon in the fight against the ghettoization of religion and science. Its well-organized presentation of physics imparts knowledge without intimidation. For this, I recommend The Becoming of Time for any whose mind already revels in the wisdom of ages but clouds over with the advent of Einstein.  — Journal of for the (McGill University) Faculty of Religious Studies

This scintillating book shows that the alleged death of close reading at the hands of theory and the turn away from literary works themselves have been greatly exaggerated. — Gerald Graff