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  • 5 - Wittgenstein and the Prospects for a Contemporary Literary Humanism

  • Edited by Robert Chodat, Boston University, John Gibson, University of Louisville, Kentucky
  • Book:
    Wittgenstein and Literary Studies
    Published online:
    05 December 2022
    Print publication:
    23 February 2023, pp 104-125

  • Summary

    According to Rita Felski, literary studies have for too long been restricted to what Paul Ricoeur famously called the “hermeneutics of suspicion.” It should now return to the text itself as a locus not only of power, interest, and domination, but of literary value, inviting engagement intellectually, emotionally, and imaginatively. Via a reading of Wittgenstein’s work on aesthetics, including his conception of aspect-perception, this chapter reflects on Felski’s proposal, arguing that its opposition between suspicion and humanism might be too simple. While Wittgenstein offers a powerful defense of a humanist view according to which a literary text encourages responsiveness to expressive meaning, it is argued that his view can be extended to include meaning constituted in various historical contexts as well. As a result, the text, as Adorno and Said claim, can never escape its dual determination as both worldly and inherently meaningful.