A01=Toril Moi
academic
analysis
austin
Author_Toril Moi
Category=DSB
cavell
close reading
college
creativity
critical
critique
education
educational
english major
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higher ed
historical
history
intellectual
language
learning
literary studies
literature
philosophical
philosophy
professor
representation
research
saussurean
scholarly
theorists
theory
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Product details
- ISBN 9780226464442
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 22 May 2017
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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.
Toril Moi is the James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies, with additional appointments in theater studies, English, and philosophy, at Duke University. Her books include Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory and Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy.
