Does Literature Think?: Literature as Theory for an Antimythical EraWhat is the process by which literature might provide us with access to knowledge, and what sort of knowledge might this be? The question is not simply whether literature thinks, but whether literature thinks theoretically whether it has a capacity, without the external aid of analytical methods that have determined Western philosophy and science since the Enlightenment, to theorize the conditions of the world from which it emerges and to which it addresses itself. Suspicion about literature's access to knowledge is ancient, at least as old as Plato's notorious expulsion of the poets from the city in the Republic. With full awareness of this classical background and in dialogue with a broad range of twentieth-century thinkers, Gourgouris examines a range of literary texts, from Sophocles' Antigone to Don DeLillo's The Names, as he traces out his argument that literature possesses an intrinsic theoretical capacity to make sense of the nonpropositional. |
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Does Literature Think?: Literature as Theory for an Antimythical Era Stathis Gourgouris No preview available - 2003 |
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action actual Adorno Antigone argues argument authority becomes Benjamin century claim collective condition consider constitutive core course culture death demands desire dialectical domain dream elements emerges encounter Enlightenment entire existence experience fact figure force foundational Genet gesture Greek hand Heidegger historical human identity imaginary imagination instance institution intuition Kafka's knowledge language limit literary literature living logic Marxism matter means merely mode myth mythical nature never notion object one's origin paradoxical Paris particular performative philosophy poetic polis political position possible practice precisely present Press question radical reading reality reason recognize relation remains respect revolutionary Schmitt sense signification singularity Sirens social society society's sort space speak specific stage takes theoretical theory things thinking thought tion traces tradition tragedy trans translation truth turn understanding University violence writing