Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies After Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell

Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies After Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell

Moi, Toril

Paperback

PhilosophyLiterary Criticism

ISBN10: 022646444X
ISBN13: 9780226464442
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: May 22 2017
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.14
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
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.

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