Philosophy & Literature

Over four sessions, this study invites reflection on the nature of a text. Salon participants love reading but what is it that we are reading? What is a text? Is it a ‘mirror’, a ‘portrait’ of reality? A description of a natural, social or cultural world? The expression of the author’s subjectivity? Are the effects of a text on us as readers part of the text? Are these questions themselves based on certain conceptions of the world, of language, of knowledge?

Together we will explore these ideas through reading selected brief extracts of works by philosophers who addressed these topics, from Aristotle to Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Barthes. However, this will not be a study of these authors: rather, by comparing and contrasting our reading of those extracts, we will use the discussion to develop an understanding of what a text is.

1st session: Text as Mimesis – Aristotle’s Poetics (extracts)

2nd session: Text as Invention – Nietzsche’s Joyous Science (extracts)

3rd session: Text as Language Games – Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (extracts)

4th session: Text as  a Multidimensional Space – Barthes’  Image-Music-Text (extracts)

STUDY DETAILS:

• Four weekly sessions on Zoom led by Emilia Steuerman
• Thursday evenings 5.30-7.30 pm (UK)
• 25 January, 1, 8, 15 February 2024
• £120 for four meetings, including preparatory notes and reference materials