Philosophy of Literature

Le « principe de ne pas lire » dans le contexte derridien

by Barbara Brzezicka

Publié dans: Cahiers ERTA, tome 2, "Autour des livres que l'on n'a pas lus", Fundacja Rozwoju Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Sopot 2011

The Puzzle of Historical Criticism

by Christopher Bartel

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (2): 213-222.

Works of fiction are often criticized for their historical inaccuracies. But this practice poses a problem: why would... more Works of fiction are often criticized for their historical inaccuracies. But this practice poses a problem: why would we criticize a work of fiction for its historical inaccuracy given that it is a work of fiction? There is an intuition that historical inaccuracies in works of fiction diminish their value as works of fiction; and yet, given that they are works of fiction, there is also an intuition that such works should be free from the constraints of historical truth. The puzzle of historical criticism is that these intuitions are obviously in conflict, and yet we wish to give up neither. In this essay, I address the shortcomings of two seemingly intuitive strategies for solving the puzzle: the puzzle cannot be solved by appealing to historical constraints of a work’s genre, nor can it be explained as an instance of imaginative resistance. Given the failure of these two strategies, I suggest that there is no easy way to account for our conflicting intuitions and that the puzzle is deserving of greater attention.

Drawing the Line

by Gestur Hilmarsson

A paper written for a seminar on Philosophy of Mathematics, taught by Prof. Erlendur Jónsson in the fall of 2011.

In this paper I theorize the ontological, epistemological and ethical questions of alternate dimensions, mainly the... more In this paper I theorize the ontological, epistemological and ethical questions of alternate dimensions, mainly the fourth one, with help from the 1884 novella Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott.

The ‘Death of the Author’ in Hegel and Kierkegaard: On Berthold’s 'The Ethics of Authorship'

by Antony Aumann

Published in 'Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal' 32:2 (2011) 435-447.

In The Ethics of Authorship, Daniel Berthold depicts G. W. F. Hegel and Søren Kierkegaard as endorsing two postmodern... more In The Ethics of Authorship, Daniel Berthold depicts G. W. F. Hegel and Søren Kierkegaard as endorsing two postmodern principles. The first is an ethical ideal. Authors should abdicate their traditional privileged position as arbiters of their texts’ meaning. They should allow readers to determine this meaning for themselves. Only by doing so will they help readers attain genuine selfhood. The second principle is a claim about language. To wit, language cannot express an author’s thoughts. I argue that if the claim about language holds, the ethical ideal becomes superfluous. In addition, if Berthold has identified Hegel and Kierkegaard’s views regarding the issues in question by reading their works, then either they failed to execute their ethical project or their views about language are false.

The Trouble with Paraphrasing Kierkegaard

by Antony Aumann

Draft only. Do not cite.

On the standard view, paraphrasing Kierkegaard requires no special literary talent. It demands no flair for the... more On the standard view, paraphrasing Kierkegaard requires no special literary talent. It demands no flair for the poetic, unless clarity and straightforwardness should count. However, Kierkegaard himself does not ascribe to this view. At least not exactly. He claims that we cannot paraphrase some of his ideas in a straightforward fashion. To use the words of Johannes Climacus, these ideas defy ‘direct communication’. In this paper, I piece together and defend the justification Kierkegaard offers for this position. I also provide an account of its implications for contemporary scholarship.

Kierkegaard on the Need for Indirect Communication

by Antony Aumann

Ph.D. Thesis. Indiana University, 2008.

This dissertation concerns Kierkegaard’s theory of indirect communication. A central aspect of this theory is... more
This dissertation concerns Kierkegaard’s theory of indirect communication. A central aspect of this theory is what I call the “indispensability thesis”: there are some projects only indirect communication can accomplish. The purpose of the dissertation is to disclose and assess the rationale behind the indispensability thesis.

A pair of questions guides the project. First, to what does ‘indirect communication’ refer? Two acceptable responses exist: (1) Kierkegaard’s version of Socrates’ midwifery method and (2) Kierkegaard’s use of artful literary devices. Second, for what end does Kierkegaard use indirect communication? There are two acceptable responses here as well: (1) helping others become religious and (2) making others aware of the nature of existence.

These responses are interrelated. First, Kierkegaard’s notion of religion places restrictions on the means he can use to get readers to become religious. These restrictions ultimately entail that the only viable form of religious pedagogy is the midwifery method. Second, Kierkegaard engages in the midwifery method in part by making readers aware of the nature of existence (especially religious existence). But given the problems plaguing his readers, he thinks a straightforward approach to this project will likely fail. An approach that used artful literary devices such as deception and humor would be more successful. Third, Kierkegaard believes that there is one aspect of religious existence (viz. subjectivity) that people can come to know only first-hand. As such, he cannot directly impart knowledge of subjectivity to his readers. He argues that this means he must use the midwifery method. And he thinks the most productive way to do so is to provide readers with the kind of fictional narratives found in his early pseudonymous writings. Thus artful rhetorical devices play a role here as well.

All of Kierkegaard’s arguments for the indispensability thesis turn on debatable assumptions. But the arguments concerning artful rhetorical devices have the additional defect of being merely probabilistic in nature. They lack the strength to support the indispensability thesis even if we grant the relevant background assumptions. Therefore, to the degree that the indispensability thesis has merit, it lies with the arguments concerning the midwifery method.

Aesthetic Value, Cognitive Value, and the Border Between

by Antony Aumann

Draft only. Do not cite.

It is sometimes held that “the aesthetic” and “the cognitive” are separate categories. Enterprises concerning the... more It is sometimes held that “the aesthetic” and “the cognitive” are separate categories. Enterprises concerning the former and ones concerning the latter have different aims and values. They require distinct modes of attention and reward divergent kinds of appreciation. Thus, we must avoid running together aesthetic and cognitive matters. In this paper, I challenge the independence of these categories, but in unorthodox fashion. Most attempts proceed by arguing that cognitive values can bear upon aesthetic ones. I approach from the opposite direction. I show that a work’s aesthetic merits can affect its cognitive ones and, more provocatively, its philosophical ones.

The Fancy of the Contemplatives: Art and the Absurd

by Mew Ophaswongse

Michaelmas Term Essay

Life is often regarded as "prior" to art in the sense that life structures and determines how one creates... more Life is often regarded as "prior" to art in the sense that life structures and determines how one creates art, but art does not necessarily gives structure to life. Here this notion of priority is posited in terms of life or art, whereby only one could be the structure-giver. In this essay, I challenge this notion, by suggesting that we approach this question not in terms of life "or" art, but rather in terms of life "and" art structuring each other, because when one turns life into art, art can produce a mode of life that is impervious to the absurd. I do so by appealing to accounts of Nietzsche, Nagel and Nehamas.

La poesia saltata. Per una definizione coerente della lirica europea contemporanea

by Cesare Catà

in “Itals. Rivista di didattica e linguistica dell’italiano come lingua straniera”, Bollettino Febbraio 2006, Anno XIV, n. 13

Applicare il termine "neolirismo" alla poesia contemporanea europea impone una riflessione sul senso della... more Applicare il termine "neolirismo" alla poesia contemporanea europea impone una riflessione sul senso della letteratura in versi e sul suo stato attuale, in primo luogo per le implicazioni semantiche di tale termine.

Storytelling and Moral Agency

by Lynne Tirrell

The capacity for telling stories is necessary for being moral agents. The minimal necessary features for moral agency... more The capacity for telling stories is necessary for being moral agents. The minimal necessary features for moral agency involve the capacities necessary for articulation, and articulation is a key part of what we learn and practice through telling stories. Developing the interdependence between agency and articulation, this article offers an account of both categorical moral agency and a degree-of-sophistication account of agency. Central to these are three factors: a moral agent has (1) the capacity to represent, (2) a sense of self (including a sense of self in relation to others), and (3) the normative capacity to make judgments marked by authority. Featuring an analysis of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” the article argues that Morrison portrays a moral sensibility emerging in the telling of the story, even in the absence of moral judgments within the text. Understanding the value of stories, fictional or factual, requires less attention to the moral value of the actions depicted within the story and more attention to the perspective and point of view developed in the narrative voice. Of most significance is the articulative process of the artist, the storyteller, the novelist, modeled for the reader, who must engage with that developing perspective.

L’Herméneutique théologique de Hans-Georg Gadamer : une dérogation à son herméneutique philosophique ? (2011)

by Dany Rodier

En voie de publication dans la revue Laval théologique et philosophique.

Cette dissertation propose une analyse détaillée des considérations de Hans-Georg Gadamer sur l’herméneutique... more Cette dissertation propose une analyse détaillée des considérations de Hans-Georg Gadamer sur l’herméneutique théologique proprement dite. Pensée dans et pour la foi chrétienne, la conception de l’herméneutique théologique qu’il met en avant se veut essentiellement une herméneutique du texte biblique. Les réflexions de Gadamer sur ce thème nous conduisent cependant tout droit dans sa théorie de la littérature. La question directrice devient celle de la nature du texte religieux (entendons : du texte biblique, reçu en son unité canonique) en tant que texte éminent, dont la structure singulière est mise en relief au moyen d’une éclairante comparaison avec les textes poétique, philosophie et juridique. L’Écriture, en tant qu’elle répond à la structure textuelle de la promesse, exige du lecteur une forme particulière d’appropriation qui trouve sa réalisation exemplaire dans la prédication. Toutefois, contre une lecture (Ommen, Eberhard, etc.) qui insiste sur la discontinuité de l’herméneutique théologique de Gadamer avec sa propre œuvre philosophique, je soutiens la thèse de leur foncière cohérence.

«Επιθυμία, έρωτας, συναισθήματα: μια φιλοσοφική ανάγνωση του Κίτρινου Φακέλου του Μ. Καραγάτση»

by Eleni Leontsini

υπό έκδοση στο διεθνές νεοελληνικό φιλολογικό περιοδικό ΙΤΑΛΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ, Rivista di cultura greco-moderna (που εκδίδεται από το Πανεπιστήμιο L’ Orientale, Έδρα Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Νάπολη, Ιταλία), Napoli 2010.

«Το βάρος της αρχαίας ελληνικής κληρονομιάς στην ποίηση του Γ. Σεφέρη: μία ιδιόμορφη έκφραση πατριωτισμού»

by Eleni Leontsini

ΙΤΑΛΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ, Rivista di cultura greco-moderna, 8 (2006), σσ. 225-255.

Representation, Voyeurism, and the Vacant Point of View

by Joel Rudinow

Benito Cerino, Freud and the Breakdown of Politics

by James Mensch

Counter-figures. An Essay on Antimetaphoric Resistance: Paul Celan's Poetry and Poetics at the Limits of Figurality

by Pajari Räsänen

Doctoral diss., 2007

From more From http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/pprasane/:
The dissertation is divided into two main parts: (1) "Problems With Metaphor? Prolegomena for Reading Otherwise", and (2) "Crossing the Troposphere: Paul Celan's Poetry and Poetics at the Limits of Figurality". The first main part consists of five Prolegomena, each of which can be read separately. The first of these introductory chapters deals with The Second Commandment, or the prohibition of image-making (Bildverbot, as Kant calls it) which is, paradoxically, superceded by another moment, the prohibition of "bowing down and serving them" (i.e. the images that were not to be made in the first place): how can you "bow down and serve" the images, or abstain from doing that, if you obeyed the first moment and did not even make them?

In the centre of the second Prolegomenon is Aristotle's ambivalent relationship with the "natural talent" (euphuia) for using metaphor, and the third Prolegomenon considers Aristotle's heritage among the modern "metaphoricians and metaphysicians", as well as the anti- or countermetaphoricians, such as Paul de Man and Murray Krieger. Prolegomenon IV contains readings of Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, with a certain critical reference to modern cognitivism. The fifth, concluding Prolegomenon not only serves as a transitory passage to the second main part, namely the essay on Celan, but also contains a central argument with regard to the whole thesis. It is intended not only as a contribution to the understanding of Heidegger's denouncement of the concept of metaphor as a metaphysical concept, but also as an analysis of a certain relation between Heidegger's early lectures on Aristotle and the concept of "being-towards-the end" (Sein zum Ende) in Sein und Zeit, a developent which bears an implicit critical reference to Aristotle's notion of metapherein.

Also many of the chapters in "Part II" can be read as if they were independent articles. For a reader specially interested in Paul Celan's poetry and its "antimetaphoric resistance", I would recommend the chapters entitled "Squalls. A Reading of 'Ein Dröhnen'", and "The Tropic of Circumcision", revolving between the poem "Einem, der vor der Tür stand" and its reading in Jacques Derrida's book Schibboleth - pour Paul Celan.

Morality and Art: Wayne Booth and the Case of Huck Finn

by Donovan Miyasaki

2007, Philosophy and Literature 31, no. 1: 125-32

In this essay, I argue that it is sometimes inappropriate to appeal to moral criteria in artistic judgments, even when... more In this essay, I argue that it is sometimes inappropriate to appeal to moral criteria in artistic judgments, even when the moral content of an artwork contributes to its artistic value. I suggest that this is the case with artworks that (1) are “interrogative” in form, posing a question or problem that remains unresolved in the work, and (2) have moral dilemmas as a principal theme. Using Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as an example of morally interrogative artwork, I critique Wayne Booth’s moral defense of the novel. I argue that because Booth incorrectly attributes a moral stance to the book, he overlooks its value as a provocation to critical reflection about morality.

Verso il Danubio. La passeggiata di Thomas Bernhard

by micaela latini

"Cultura tedesca", 40 (2010), pp. 157-168

Il Possibile E Il Marginale: Studio Su Ernst Bloch

by micaela latini

Stupore e “spaesamento” in Ernst Bloch, in Pasquale Venditti (ed.), La filosofia e le emozioni, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2003, pp. 387-395

by micaela latini