Literature, Voice, Meaning

There has been a steady stream of articles written on the relations between conceptions of meaning and the interpretation of literature, but there remains a need for a book that both introduces and significantly contributes to an elucidation and understanding of the ways that voice and tone contribute to the determination of meaning. Only rarely have considerations of voice been brought together with considerations of meaning-determination (the work of Stanley Cavell, covered in one section of this book, is a leading example). This volume thus offers an analytically acute and culturally rich way of understanding how it is that we can productively think philosophically about meaning in language and literature in a more inclusive, expansive, and indeed human way.

Considers the varieties of meaning within interpretative criticism Elucidates the ways that voice contributes to the determination of meaning Explores how we can think productively about meaning in language and literature

Auteur

Garry L. Hagberg is the James H. Ottaway Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at Bard College; his most recent book is Living in Words: Literature, Autobiographical Language, and the Composition of Selfhood (2023).

Contenu

1.Introduction: Conceptions of Language, the Power of Voice, and the Determination of Meaning, Garry L. Hagberg.- Part I. Varieties of Meaning within Interpretive Criticism .- 2. I. A. Richards and the Meaning of Criticism, Daniel Braun.- 3. "That Which is Its Own Evidence: Oscar Wilde and the Platonic Dialogue, Shyam Vijay Patel.- 4. Rethinking Dramatic Irony with George Eliot's Silas Marner, Lucas Thompson.- Part II. Meaning Lost and Found.- 5. The Pursuit of Meaning in Beckett's Watt: A Success Story , Shoshana Benjamin.- 6 . Robert Frost's Dharma and Ours: On Teaching Directive", K. Narayana Chandran.- 7. Plays, Words, and Meaning , Carola Barbero.- Part III. J. L. Austin, Stanley Cavell, and the Necessity of Community. - 8. Self-Affirmation and Uncooperative Communication in HaroldPinter's No Man's Land.- Ivan Nyusztay.- 9. Stanley Cavell between Friends and Strangers, CJ Higgins.- 10 . The Appalling Business of Amit Chaudhuri, Paul Deb.- Part IV. Distinctive Voices, Saying, and the Intricacies of the Spoken.- 11. Finding One's Voice: Talk, Knowledge, and Intimacy in Diderot's D'Alembert's Dream, Rudolphus Teeuwen.- 12. Voice and Meaning in Henry James's The Wings of the Dove, Garry L. Hagberg.- 13. Poet of Joy: Nietzschean Motifs in Philip Larkin, David Gelineau.- Part V. Pictures and Powers of Literary Language.- 14. Saussure, Bergson, and the Future of Literary Theory, David Lehner.- 15. Art and Information: A Few Unsystematic Suggestions, William James Earle.- 16. Philosophy and the Force of Metaphor, Nina Belmonte.