"The Functions and Limits of Autobiography in Augustine's "Confessions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4754810 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eugene Vance (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 399 |
| Publication date | 1984-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Poetics Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1771938 |
| OpenAlex | W2324185449 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
The topic of this issue, structure of in fiction, will require certain refinements if I am to deal with it either as a serious theoretical problem or as a possible pragmatic approach to the specific question concerning the functions and limits of autobiographical discourse in St. Augustine's autobiography, the Confessions. I shall not try to remake the topic all at once, but will hope, rather, that its transformation will occur during the analysis that follows. One preliminary remark should be made about the ability of language to express reality in the first place, at least in Augustine's eyes. While Augustine believes that the grammatical structure of language does to a certain extent correspond to the ontological structure of reality, language as a signifying process is not immanent in the that is known, but in the cognitive activity of the knowing mind. Hence, the capacity of language to express truth belonging to the objective world is at best limited. The language of the mind is truest when the mind itself becomes an object of knowledge, for then the knower and the known are one and the same. But even then, this correspondence of language to is finite, subject to error, weak, and unstable at least when it is compared with the Word of as Son and expression of the of the Father: God the Son is substantially similar to the Father in all things (De trin. XV:xi 20).1 Rhetorician that he was, Augustine was aware that in the limited and imperfect sphere of human speech, there are multiple alternatives in the choice of that one wishes to understand, and multiple alternatives in the mode of expressing a reality. Moreover
Art · Biography · Literature · Theology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2015 (22) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |