Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism

Description

Arguably no other living philosopher has done as much as Stanley Cavell to show the common cause shared by literature and philosophy. Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies is not only timely but, indeed, long past due. As the discipline of literary studies struggles to move beyond the suspicious skepticisms and anti-humanisms that have dominated the field, but without lapsing into sentimentality and naivete, Cavell's writings and ideas will only become more pertinent.

Richard Eldridge is the Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College, PA, USA. He is the author and editor of numerous books in philosophy and literature, including, as editor, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature (OUP, 2009) and Stanley Cavell (CUP, 2003, 2008), and as author, Literature, Life, and Modernity (Columbia University Press, 2008), An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art (CUP, 2004), On Moral Personhood: Philosophy, Literature, Criticism, and Self-Understanding (University of Chicago Press,1989), and Leading a Human Life: Wittgenstein, Intentionality, and Romanticism (University of Chicago Press, 1997). Bernard Rhie is Associate Professor of English at Williams College, USA.

"A serious encounter between literary theory and ordinary language philosophy is long overdue. This stimulating collection of essays is an indispensable resource for literary critics curious about Cavell and anyone eager to strengthen and deepen the relations between philosophy and literature." -- Rita Felski, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of English, University of Virginia, USA, and Editor, New Literary History "In making good on its important effort to encourage and enact a rapprochement between Cavell and literary criticism, Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies is splendid testimony to one of this thinker's extraordinary strengths: his gift for inspiring brilliant minds to engage him in arguments about matters that are of compelling concern to readers across the humanities. This is a scintillating collection of passionately argued essays." -- Ross Posnock, Anna Garbedian Professor of the Humanities, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, USA "As Cavell's work restores emotional drama to ordinary language philosophy by attending to the literary, so does this splendid collection reenergize literary studies by bringing it into conversation with Cavell. Genres as diverse as Shakespearean tragedy, American Romanticism, and contemporary fiction reveal their commonalities here as confrontations with, and attempts to repair, the skeptical rupture between self and otherness. Through these searching essays, we are led to recognize anew the way writing functions both as withdrawal from the world and as an affirmation of the potentialities of our common language." -- Jennifer Fleissner, Associate Professor of English, Indiana University Bloomington, USA It is worth saying that, while most contributors exhibit real sympathy with Cavell's preoccupations and perceptions, there is no shortage of critical questioning of both their finer details and broader implications. [...] The resulting essays have been divided into two groups: those primarily addressing matters of theory or principle and those primarily developing readings of individual authors and texts (although, as the editors make clear, some are less easy to subsume with such taxonomy than others). And the collection contains many examples of work in both categories that genuinely helps illuminate either the true nature of Cavell's work or the kinds of approach in literary studies that most deeply resist and most naturally invite engagement with it (in all its idiosyncrasy). -- Stephen Mulhall, New College, University of Oxford, UK * Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1, 2015 * In this fine collection of essays, the energy of long-standing engagements with [Cavell's] philosophical legacy animates discussions of the relation between philosophy and literature and of the nature of aesthetic criticism more broadly. [...] The authors of the essays in this collection take up the challenge posed by an ordinary language approach to criticism with originality and vigor. -- Yi Ping Ong, Johns Hopkins University * Modern Philology * Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism marks a fruition of the available criticism on Cavell's relation to literary studies. I t conveys the sense of a thorough assimilation of Cavell's project that reflects a deep-and sometimes long-acquaintance with it on the part of many of the contributors. [...] This volume is specialized but accessible, and evinces a real companionship of endeavor without being protective or exclusive. More in the spirit of Cavell's work than to the letter of it, this companionship permits disagreement, divergence of opinion, and even critique. S uch an attitude is a better compliment than reverence, showing both seriousness of engagement and, for some, true intellectual influence. [...] The collection as a whole is a rich exploration of Cavell's relation to literary studies, and a broader statement of belief in the dividends of reading. -- Rachel Malkin, Cambridge University, UK * The Wallace Stevens Journal *