Description
Book SynopsisThe title of this book is Art and Argument, however, these two subjects are treated in reverse order, first argument, then art. Art and Argument is an engagingly written work about how words work in the world and in art. Its freewheeling considerations range from everyday examples to speculative metaphysics, touching along the way on written works from columns by the advice doyenne Ann Landers to literature by D.H. Lawrence, the Japanese Modernist Soseki, and the Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Steven Dunn.
Trade ReviewThe book attempts to analyze how language works and how it fails and how we might manage to deal with it, provided we see it as succeeding and failing in communication. In generally straightforward language, and with examples from ordinary acts of communication, Fleming attempts to find out what is at the root of the multidimensionality of communication. We do need more such readable books in this subject. -- Sudhakar Marathe, University of Hyderabada * Review of Metaphysics *
This work contains some wonderful insights into everyday occurrences and helps make certain life experiences seem simple again, in a field that tends to complicate some of the most basic such experiences. -- Adam Melinn, Philadelphia University * Philosophy in Review *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 The Ineffability of Language Chapter 2 Worlds and the World Chapter 3 Sex and Silence Chapter 4 The Boundary Between Words and Silence Chapter 5 What Art Is, and What It Isn't Chapter 6 True, False, or Gray Chapter 7 How to Do Things With Literature Chapter 8 Endnotes Chapter 9 Bibliography Chapter 10 About the Author Chapter 11 Index
