Philosophical Meta-Reflections on Literary Studies: Why Do Things with Texts, and What to Do with Them?

Description

'Philosophical Meta-Reflections on Literary Studies' takes up key meta-questions in the humanities, with focus on contemporary literary studies, philosophically examines the nature of knowledge therein as well as the implications of certain popular critical approaches, and addresses the effervescent question of ‘relevance’. In contrast to usual works on literary theory, or on philosophy of literature for that matter, this book presents an integrated meta-reasoning on the foundational questions of literary studies from an interdisciplinary perspective – in a manner of intertextual informality. It endeavours to articulate a rationale for the humanities in general and literary studies in particular. It philosophically examines the implications of, and assumptions behind, three popular tendencies in contemporary literary criticism – textual deconstruction, ideological criticism and constructivism. It also introduces the reader to possibilities of non-reductive reasoning with regard to the relation between the aesthetic and the political. With his multidisciplinary background, doctoral degree on an encyclopedic author (James Joyce) and past engagements with vital issues in the humanities/literature, Jibu George is in a position to deal with foundational questions therein. Cover Front Matter Half-title Title page Copyright information Dedication Epigraph Table of Contents Acknowledgements Chapters Int-4 Introduction Chapter 1 The why and Wherefore of Academic Disciplines: The Humanities and the Human World Process 1.1 The Humanities – An Ugly Duckling among Alma Mater’s Pets 1.2 The Nature of Knowledge in the Humanities 1.3 Obscure or Irrelevant?: The Bogey of ‘High Funda’ 1.4 Implementational and Reflective Intelligence 1.5 The Human World Process 1.6 An Abstraction Theory of Knowledge 1.7 Ontology of the Intangible 1.8 Scientistic Aspirations of the Humanities Notes Chapter 2 If Literature were to Disappear from the Spectrum of Disciplines … 2.1 Why Do Things with Texts? 2.2 Is ‘Life’ a Humanist Abstraction? 2.3 Delicate Epistemes of Literature 2.4 Templates of Significance 2.5 World-Appetite 2.6 Reader-Text Symmetry Notes Chapter 3 Beyond for and Against: Tendencies of Contemporary Criticism 3.1 What to Do with Texts? 3.2 The Return of Deductive Reasoning 3.3 Facts and Frames 3.4 The Enterprise of Ideological Criticism 3.5 Constructivism 3.6 Ce qui arrive (réellement): What Does Deconstruction Actually ‘Mean’? 3.6.1 The auto-epiphany of Western thought 3.6.2 ‘Put a pin in that chap, will you?’: Deconstruction in critical practice 3.7 Why Not ‘Work’ and ‘Text’? 3.8 From Textual Being to Avant-Textual Becoming: A Temporal Ontology for Texts 3.9 The Calculi of Reasoning in Literary Studies Notes Chapter 4 The Aesthetic and the Political 4.1 The Scandal Called the Aesthetic 4.2 What Is a Classic? 4.3 ‘Keep the Professors Busy for Centuries’ 4.4 A Milestone Approach 4.5 Ever-Changing Domains of Knowledge 4.6 Negotiated Possibilities Notes End Matter References Index