Description
Book SynopsisIn Roman Ingarden’s Philosophy of Literature Wojciech Chojna discusses Ingarden’s theory of literary works and develops a phenomenological account of identity which accommodates differences in interpretations and value judgments without succumbing to relativism. The latter is overcome not through falling back on essentialism but from within relativism. Literature offers us diverse experiences changing our perceptions of ourselves and the worlds we live in. Absolutism proclaiming unmitigated access to the meaning of literary texts is intolerant of differences and leads to violence in life. Conversely, relativism, in the illusory spirit of radical tolerance, turns meanings and values into historically contingent, incompatible interpretations, where communication and reconciliation is impossible, thus justifying ideological conflicts and violence.
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Ingarden’s Relevance Today 1 Introduction to the Concept of Identity Some Traditional Approaches Ingarden’s General Ontology 2 Nature and Identity of a Literary Work in American Aesthetics Nelson Goodman’s Syntactical Identity Richard Wolheim’s Amendment Psychologism Semantic Accounts Joseph Margolis’s Culturally Emergent Objects 3 Phenomenological Concept of Identity Identity of a Perceptual Object The Concept of Intentionality The Concept of Constitution Ideality and Identity of the Objectivities of Understanding Husserl’s Theory of Meaning Ingarden’s Objections to Husserl’s Transcendental Idealism Hermeneutic Challenges against the Possibility of Transcendental Phenomenology 4 Literary Work as a Schematic Structure The Notion of a ‘Purely Intentional Object’ Schematism Structure of a Literary Work of Art The Stratum of Linguistic Sound Formations The Stratum of Meanings Meanings of Sentences The Stratum of Presented Objects The Stratum of Schematized Aspects Objections to Ingarden’s Conception of the Four Strata of Literary Work The Order of Sequence of Parts Quasi-judgments 5 Aesthetic Experience and Life of a Literary Work of Art Aesthetic Experience Problems Pertaining to Aesthetic Experience Pre-aesthetic Cognition of a Literary Work of Art Cognition of an Aesthetic Object The Work and Its Concretizations ‘Life’ of a Literary Work of Art 6 Values of Literary Work of Art Artistic and Aesthetic Values The Stratum of Sounds and Its Function in the Constitution of Aesthetic Qualities The Stratum of Meanings and Its Function in the Constitution of Aesthetic Qualities De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum Metaphysical Qualities Poetry as a Means of Cognition 7 The Identity of a Literary Work of Art Identity of Sounds Identity of Meanings Dialectics of Identity Subjectivism, Relativism and Identity Epilogue Bibliography Index
