The aim of this module is to assess the implications of recent literary theory for our thinking about issues of truth, knowledge, meaning, intentionality, and related topics in philosophy of mind and language. The approach will be mainly through a detailed comparative reading of texts – like those of Frege and Saussure – which help to explain why the two traditions have drawn so widely apart despite their many areas of shared concern. We shall also read essays by a number of (arguably) ‘post-analytic’ philosophers – among them Quine, Davidson, Putnam, and Rorty – with a view to understanding what has been made of them by literary and cultural theorists. The course will therefore be ‘interdisciplinary’ in the sense of questioning certain received distinctions, as between philosophy and literary theory, or philosophy in the ‘analytic’ and ‘continental’ modes. However, we shall avoid the kind of all-purpose levelling approach that treats philosophy – in Richard Rorty’s phrase – as just another ‘kind of writing’ whose chief virtue is to throw up all manner of creative redescriptions, inventive re-tellings of its own prehistory, or new-found ‘metaphors we can live by’. There will be some discussion of texts by Jacques Derrida (during the Autumn semester) but not so much as to create problems of overlap or duplicated effort for students who have taken my second-year module on French Philosophy. Some background knowledge of work in the broadly analytic tradition – especially philosophy of language – will be useful but not prerequisite.

·         demonstrate the ability to discuss topics in literary criticism and theory from a well-informed philosophical standpoint.

·         demonstrate a grasp of the way that philosophical texts can be analysed with regard to certain distinctive elements of stylistic, metaphorical, and narrative structure.

·         demonstrate their powers of conceptual grasp through exposure to a range of often conflicting arguments, e.g., about literary realism, meaning and authorial intent. They will thus be better placed to question or criticise some of the predominant assumptions in other fields of philosophical study.

This module will be delivered through a weekly two-hour lecture plus a fortnightly seminar and periods of individual consultation for discussing lecture contents, coursework topics, special (relevant) interests, etc. The seminars will involve discussion sessions led by a member of staff, as well as discussion sessions where students are required to make presentations and/or lead discussion.

The module will be taught using printed books and journal articles available from the library or available online (e.g. via Learning Central). Timetabled sessions will be supplemented with written material in the form of a skeletal outline of the session content provided as a printed handout and on Learning Central. Any supplementary material in a permanent form (e.g. a paper handout or downloadable document) will be made available at the beginning of the session.

Audio recordings will be used as an occasional supplement to the teaching on this module.

Images, diagrams, video and other multi-media resources will not be used in this module.

Students will develop employability skills which include the ability to synthesise information, operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments in a professional manner.

The formative assessment for this module will take the form of essays of a length between 1,500 and 2,000 words.

The summative assessment for this module will take the form of a three hour written examination during which candidates will complete two essays on topics of their choice.

The module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the Philosophy Course Guide. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

THE POTENTIAL FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

In common with University regulations, students are allowed two attempts at retrieval of any failed essay, with the cap on the individual essay set at 40.

Each week there will be two lecture-periods (running consecutively from 3 to 5 p.m. every Friday), so each of the broadly specified topics listed below will be subject to fairly lengthy discussion. The seminars are scheduled for the periods immediately before and after the lectures, i.e., at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.)

Week One:      Philosophical perspectives on literary theory/‘literary’ perspectives on philosophy

Week Two:      Sense, Reference, and Possible Worlds: is literary fiction a problem?

Week Three:    Authorial intention, speech-act theory, and textual meaning 

Week Four:     Formalism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism

Week Five:      The ‘Linguistic Turn’: analytic and continental perspectives

Week Six:        Hermeneutics and Interpretation-Theory

Week Seven:   William Empson: ambiguity and complex words

Week Eight:    Deconstruction: some philosophical/literary bearings

Week Nine:     Jacques Derrida: supplementarity and deviant logics

Week Ten:       Neo-Pragmatism and the Case ‘Against Theory’. Richard Rorty and Stanley Fish

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: an introduction (Oxford: Blackwell)

Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: a very short introduction (Oxford Universty Press)

Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh (eds.), Modern Literary Theory: a reader (London: Edward Arnold)

Christopher Norris, Deconstruction: theory and practice, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge)

Christopher Norris, The Deconstructive Turn: essays in the rhetoric of philosophy (London: Methuen)

Christopher Norris, The Contest of Faculties: philosophy and theory after deconstruction (London: Routledge)

Christopher Norris, Fiction, Philosophy and Literary Theory: will the real Saul Kripke please stand up? (London: Continuum)

Samuel C. Wheeler, Deconstruction as Analytic Philosophy (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press)