PHGA 7664 Philosophy of Literature
Professor Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Fall 2007
Thursday, 2:00–4:00

Philosophy of Literature is a course devoted to examining the relationship between philosophical thought and literary language. The traditional opposition between philosophical argumentation and literary mimesis throughout the history of Western philosophy serves as the background for its the revaluation of literature in 20th century Continental philosophy, as the challenge by Romanticism to the scientific delimitation of philosophical truth is taken up and amplified. 

In this course we will consider the central problems of the relationship between philosophy and literature, and the major contributors to Continental philosophy of literature in the last century.  The topics discussed will include hermeneutics, phenomenological accounts of literary language, the ontology and autonomy of literary language, and the status and participation of author and reader in the constitution of meaning.  Readings include the major texts by Gadamer, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Barthes, Bachelard, Blanchot, de Man, Sartre, and Foucault.  Other texts, which may be collected in a course reader, include essays by Poulet, Iser, Fish, and Nehemas, and others.

The course will be structured by lecture, in the first hour, and seminar discussion in the second hour, including graduate student presentations.  Lectures and discussions will require the student to have read and prepared the week’s material in advance.  Expectations of the students include, in addition to seminar discussion, a 20–25 page term paper and one substantial presentation to the class based on a selection from the readings.

In addition to a collection of contemporary essays, texts will include:

• Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
• Martin Heidegger, On the Way to Language and Poetry, Language, Thought
• Maurice Blanchot, The Space of Literature and Writing of the Disaster
• Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
• Roland Barthes, Writing Degree Zero and “The Death of the Author” from Music-Image-Text
• Jean-Paul Sartre, What is Literature?
• Wolfgang Iser, The Phenomenology of Reading
• Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?”
• Paul de Man, Blindness and Insight.