Revolution of the Ordinary

Revolution of the Ordinary PDF Author: Toril Moi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022646444X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This radically original book argues for the power of ordinary language philosophy—a tradition inaugurated by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, and extended by Stanley Cavell—to transform literary studies. In engaging and lucid prose, Toril Moi demonstrates this philosophy’s unique ability to lay bare the connections between words and the world, dispel the notion of literature as a monolithic concept, and teach readers how to learn from a literary text. Moi first introduces Wittgenstein’s vision of language and theory, which refuses to reduce language to a matter of naming or representation, considers theory’s desire for generality doomed to failure, and brings out the philosophical power of the particular case. Contrasting ordinary language philosophy with dominant strands of Saussurean and post-Saussurean thought, she highlights the former’s originality, critical power, and potential for creative use. Finally, she challenges the belief that good critics always read below the surface, proposing instead an innovative view of texts as expression and action, and of reading as an act of acknowledgment. Intervening in cutting-edge debates while bringing Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell to new readers, Revolution of the Ordinary will appeal beyond literary studies to anyone looking for a philosophically serious account of why words matter.

Revolution of the Ordinary

Revolution of the Ordinary PDF Author: Toril Moi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022646444X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This radically original book argues for the power of ordinary language philosophy—a tradition inaugurated by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, and extended by Stanley Cavell—to transform literary studies. In engaging and lucid prose, Toril Moi demonstrates this philosophy’s unique ability to lay bare the connections between words and the world, dispel the notion of literature as a monolithic concept, and teach readers how to learn from a literary text. Moi first introduces Wittgenstein’s vision of language and theory, which refuses to reduce language to a matter of naming or representation, considers theory’s desire for generality doomed to failure, and brings out the philosophical power of the particular case. Contrasting ordinary language philosophy with dominant strands of Saussurean and post-Saussurean thought, she highlights the former’s originality, critical power, and potential for creative use. Finally, she challenges the belief that good critics always read below the surface, proposing instead an innovative view of texts as expression and action, and of reading as an act of acknowledgment. Intervening in cutting-edge debates while bringing Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell to new readers, Revolution of the Ordinary will appeal beyond literary studies to anyone looking for a philosophically serious account of why words matter.

The Literary Wittgenstein

The Literary Wittgenstein PDF Author: John Gibson
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415289733
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
A stellar collection of articles relating the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) to core problems in the theory and philosophy of literature, written by the most prominent figures in the field.

Wittgenstein and Modernism

Wittgenstein and Modernism PDF Author: Michael LeMahieu
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022642040X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Wittgenstein and Modernism is the first collection to address the rich, vexed, and often contradictory relationship between modernism, the 20th century s predominant cultural and artistic movement, and Wittgenstein, the most preeminent and enduring philosopher of the period. Although Wittgenstein famously declared that philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry, we have yet to fully consider how Wittgenstein s philosophy relates to the poetic, literary, and artistic production that exemplifies the modernist era in which he lived and worked. Featuring contributions from scholars of philosophy and literature, the contributors put Wittgenstein s writing in dialogue with work by poets and novelists (James, Woolf, Kafka, Musil, Rilke, Hofmannsthal, Beckett, Bellow and Robinson) as well as philosophers and theorists (Karl Kraus, John Stuart Mill, Walter Benjamin, Michael Fried, Stanley Cavell). The volume illuminates two important aspects of Wittgenstein s work related to modernism and postmodernism: form and medium. Each of Wittgenstein s two major works not only advanced a revolutionary conception of philosophy, but also developed a revolutionary philosophical form to engage his readers in a mode of philosophical practice. As a whole this volume comprises an overarching argument about the importance of Wittgenstein for understanding modernism, and the importance of modernism for understanding Wittgenstein."

A Different Order of Difficulty

A Different Order of Difficulty PDF Author: Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022667729X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Is the point of philosophy to transmit beliefs about the world, or can it sometimes have higher ambitions? In this bold study, Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé makes a critical contribution to the “resolute” program of Wittgenstein scholarship, revealing his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as a complex, mock-theoretical puzzle designed to engage readers in the therapeutic self-clarification Wittgenstein saw as the true work of philosophy. Seen in this light, Wittgenstein resembles his modernist contemporaries more than might first appear. Like the literary innovators of his time, Wittgenstein believed in the productive power of difficulty, in varieties of spiritual experience, in the importance of age-old questions about life’s meaning, and in the possibility of transfigurative shifts toward the right way of seeing the world. In a series of absorbing chapters, Zumhagen-Yekplé shows how Kafka, Woolf, Joyce, and Coetzee set their readers on a path toward a new way of being. Offering a new perspective on Wittgenstein as philosophical modernist, and on the lives and afterlives of his indirect teaching, A Different Order of Difficulty is a compelling addition to studies in both literature and philosophy.

Kafka and Wittgenstein

Kafka and Wittgenstein PDF Author: Rebecca Schuman
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810131501
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
In Kafka and Wittgenstein, Rebecca Schuman undertakes the first ever book-length scholarly examination of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language alongside Franz Kafka’s prose fiction. In groundbreaking readings, she argues that although many readers of Kafka are searching for what his texts mean, in this search we are sorely mistaken. Instead, the problems and illusions we portend to uncover, the im-portant questions we attempt to answer—Is Josef K. guilty? If so, of what? What does Gregor Samsa’s transformed body mean? Is Land-Surveyor K. a real land surveyor?— themselves presuppose a bigger delusion: that such questions can be asked in the first place. Drawing deeply on the entire range of Wittgenstein’s writings, Schuman can-nily sheds new light on the enigmatic Kafka.

Wittgenstein Reading

Wittgenstein Reading PDF Author: Sascha Bru
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110294699
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Wittgenstein's thought is reflected in his reading and reception of other authors. Wittgenstein Reading approaches the moment of literature as a vehicle of self-reflection for Wittgenstein. What sounds, on the surface, like criticism (e.g. of Shakespeare) can equally be understood as a simple registration of Wittgenstein's own reaction, hence a piece of self-diagnosis or self-analysis. The book brings a representative sample of authors, from Shakespeare, Goethe, or Dostoyevsky to some that have received far less attention in Wittgenstein scholarship like Kleist, Lessing, or Wilhelm Busch and Johann Nepomuk Nestroy. Furthermore, the volume offers means for the cultural contextualization of Wittgenstein's thoughts. Unique to this book is its internal design. The editors' introduction sets the scene with regards to both biography and theory, while each of the subsequent chapters takes a quotation from Wittgenstein on a particular author as its point of departure for developing a more specific theme relating to the writer in question. This format serves to avoid the well-trodden paths of discussions on the relationship between philosophy and literature, allowing for unconventional observations to be made. Furthermore, the volume offers means for the cultural contextualization of Wittgenstein's thoughts.

Translation after Wittgenstein

Translation after Wittgenstein PDF Author: Philip Wilson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317628330
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
In this eminently readable study, Philip Wilson explores the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and shows how a reading of this philosophy can enable the translation theorist and the practising translator to reflect upon and improve the phenomenon of translation. Wittgenstein, whilst a key figure in twentieth-century philosophy, remains peripheral to the field of translation studies and Wilson argues that his later work, because it deals with the nature of language and meaning, is potentially of great significance and an awareness of this can change translation, both literary and non-literary. Wittgenstein’s life and thought is treated in the introduction, where it is shown how his methods can be applied to areas outside philosophy. The central three chapters of the book survey: the reading of the source text for translation; the writing of the target text; the theorisation of the target text. The author demonstrates how tools from Wittgenstein’s work can be of use in translation studies: the notion of the language-game, for example, helps us to understand meaning by looking at the way that words are used, and this can both help us describe translation and suggest ways of translating. A wide variety of examples and case studies is given throughout the book, from both literary and non-literary sources. Aimed at translation studies scholars, graduate students and researchers, this interdisciplinary book will also be of interest to scholars of philosophy and literature.

A Picture Held Us Captive

A Picture Held Us Captive PDF Author: Tea Lobo
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110612305
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
While there are publications on Wittgenstein’s interest in Dostoevsky’s novels and the recurring mentions of Wittgenstein in Sebald’s works, there has been no systematic scholarship on the relation between perception (such as showing and pictures) and the problem of an adequate presentation of interiority (such as intentions or pain) for these three thinkers.This relation is important in Wittgenstein’s treatment of the subject and in his private language argument, but it is also an often overlooked motif in both Dostoevsky’s and Sebald’s works. Dostoevsky’s depiction of mindset discrepancies in a rapidly modernizing Russia can be analyzed interms of multi-aspectivity. The theatricality of his characters demonstrates especially well Wittgenstein’s account of interiority's interrelatedness with overt public practices and codes. In Sebald’s Austerlitz, Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblances is an aesthetic strategy within the novel. Visual tropes are most obviously present in Sebald's use of photography, and can partially be read as an ethical-aesthetic imperative of rendering pain visible. Tea Lobo's book contributes towards a non-Cartesian account of literary presentations of inner life based on Wittgenstein's thought.

Wittgenstein's Ladder

Wittgenstein's Ladder PDF Author: Marjorie Perloff
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226660608
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Austere and uncompromising, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had no use for the avant-garde art works of his own time. He refused to formulate an aesthetic, declaring that one can no more define the "beautiful" than determine "what sort of coffee tastes good". And yet many of the writers of our time have understood, as academic theorists generally have not, that Wittgenstein is "their" philosopher. How do we resolve this paradox? Marjorie Perloff, our foremost critic of twentieth-century poetry, argues that Wittgenstein has provided writers with a radical new aesthetic, a key to recognizing the inescapable strangeness of ordinary language. Wittgenstein's ladder is an apt figure for this radical aesthetic, and not just in its ordinariness as an object. The movement "up" this ladder can never be more than what Wittgenstein's contemporary, Gertrude Stein, called "Beginning again and again". Wittgenstein shows us, too, that we cannot climb the same ladder twice: the use of language, the context in which words and sentences appear, defines their meaning, which changes with every repetition. Wittgenstein's aesthetic brooks no theory, no essentialism, no metalanguage - only a practice, a mode of operation, fragmentary and elliptical.

Wittgenstein and Heidegger

Wittgenstein and Heidegger PDF Author: David Egan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113410829X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger are arguably the two most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. Their work not only reshaped the philosophical landscape, but also left its mark on other disciplines, including political science, theology, anthropology, ecology, mathematics, cultural studies, literary theory, and architecture. Both sought to challenge the assumptions governing the traditions they inherited, to question the very terms in which philosophy’s problems had been posed, and to open up new avenues of thought for thinkers of all stripes. And despite considerable differences in style and in the traditions they inherited, the similarities between Wittgenstein and Heidegger are striking. Comparative work of these thinkers has only increased in recent decades, but no collection has yet explored the various ways in which Wittgenstein and Heidegger can be drawn into dialogue. As such, these essays stage genuine dialogues, with aspects of Wittgenstein’s elucidations answering or problematizing aspects of Heidegger’s, and vice versa. The result is a broad-ranging collection of essays that provides a series of openings and provocations that will serve as a reference point for future work that draws on the writings of these two philosophers.