A smart and engaging study of the aphorism, the shortest literary form, through time and across languages
Andrew Hui is associate professor of humanities at Yale-NUS College, Singapore. He is the author of The Poetics of Ruins in Renaissance Literature.
"One of FiveBooks' Best Philosophy Books of 2019"
"Aphorisms come at us in so many forms and from so many periods
that one might think an academic study of aphorisms would aim to
give them a family tree . . . . But Andrew Hui’s new study, A
Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter, does something
oddly and interestingly different . . . . Once the reader accepts
[his] more expansive and sombre definition of the aphorism, much of
interest follows."---Adam Gopnik, New Yorker
"In A Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter, Andrew Hui
makes a lot out of a little . . . . If you have a hankering for
infinity, eternity, or inexhaustibility, this is a book for
you."---Willis Goth Regier, World Literature Today
"Lovers of aphorisms will derive huge pleasure from this elegant
and informative book."
*Paradigm Explorer*
"This ambitious book explores some 2500 years of literature in
under 250 pages to establish a theory of the aphorism. . . . Just
as aphorisms rest on authority, not argument, so too Hui sidelines
the systematic in favor of more aphoristic pursuits: to observe,
pronounce, and artfully describe."---Stephen Kidd, Bryn Mawr
Classical Review
"In my view, this book is groundbreaking. There’s an assumption in
the way philosophy is often taught—in the West at least—that
aphorisms are a quirky, awkward bit of philosophy that we’ll admit
is there but we won’t focus on. I think it’s time other
philosophers started thinking seriously about how aphorisms work. .
. . It’s a really interesting and entertaining book."---Nigel
Warburton, Five Books
"For anyone concerned with the humanities and their future within
and without the academy [A Theory of the Aphorism] should prove
compelling."---Lachlan Mackinnon, Times Literary Supplement
"In my view, this book is groundbreaking. There should be a lot of
other books about aphorisms because it’s such a rich area."---Nigel
Warburton, FiveBooks
"Like aphorism itself, Hui’s book is not bogged down with
systematic argumentation, but rather proceeds in short sections
that often end aphoristically. . . . Just as aphorisms rest on
authority, not argument, so too Hui sidelines the systematic in
favor of more aphoristic pursuits: to observe, pronounce, and
artfully describe."---Stephen Kidd, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"This book offers an engaging look at the aphorism, the shortest
and perhaps most dismissed of literary forms. . . . A splendid,
thought-provoking book."
*Choice*
"A book through which Hui proposes a new reading of the aphorism
and its history up to the present time, including social media
platforms such as Twitter."---Petru Moldovan, Gnosis: Journal of
Gnostic Studies
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