ENGL 90135 - The Nature of Literature

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

Can we say what literature is, or is the term so diverse and open-ended as to defeat all definition? If it cannot be defined, how much does it matter? As much as a physician being unable to give a reasonably definitive account of the pancreas, or nothing like as much? Should it be a source of embarrassment to literary types that they often have only a foggy notion of what they are working on, or is such embarrassment as misplaced and unnecessary as being unable to define the word "game?" Almost all attempts at an exhaustive definition of literature have proved defective in one way or another. Theories which identify literary works with fiction, special or unusually inventive uses of language, non-pragmatic utterances, moral and imaginative insight and so on have all either come to grief or betrayed serious deficiencies. Boldly undeterred by this wreckage-strewn history, this course will begin with some general reflections on the question of whether things have determinate natures, glancing at the medieval debates on the issue between realists and nominalists. It will go on to consider the relevance to the idea of literature of Ludwig Wittgenstein's celebrated "family resemblances" notion, and conclude by dramatically unveiling a theory of literature which seeks to avoid the flaws and exclusions of the models currently on offer. Reading: Paul Hernadi (ed.), What Is Literature? (Bloomington and London, 1968) John M. Ellis, Theory of Literary Criticism (Berkeley, 1974) Terry Eagleton, "What is Literature?", in Literary Theory: An Introduction (Oxford, 1983) Stanley Fish, "What is Stylistics and Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things About It?", in Seymour Chatman (ed), Approaches to Poetics (New York, 1973)

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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