Kafka and Wittgenstein : the case for an analytic modernism / Rebecca Schuman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schuman, Rebecca, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924--Criticism and interpretation.

Kafka, Franz.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig.

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924.

Literature--Philosophy.

Literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

ix, 220 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2015.

Summary:

In Kafka and Wittgenstein, Rebecca Schuman undertakes the first ever book-length scholarly examination of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language alongside Franz Kafka's prose fiction. In groundbreaking readings, she argues that although many readers of Kafka are searching for what his texts mean, in this search we are sorely mistaken. Instead, the problems and illusions we portend to uncover, the important questions we attempt to answer-Is Josef K. guilty? If so, of what? What does Gregor Samsa's transformed body mean? Is Land Surveyor K. a real land surveyor?-themselves presuppose a bigger delusion: that such questions can be asked in the first place. Drawing deeply on the entire range of Wittgenstein's writings, Schuman cannily sheds new light on the enigmatic Kafka. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: why Kafka and Wittgenstein?

Logical modernism: Kafka and the Tractatus logico-philosophicus

Logic, skepticism, and mysticism

The trial and the law of logic

The metamorphosis and the limits of metaphorical language

"The judgment," ethics, and the ineffable

Analytic skepticism : Kafka and the philosophical investigations

Wittgenstein's transition and a more analytic Kafka

The castle and the paradox of ostensive definition

Rule-following and failed execution: "in the penal colony"

The private language argument and the undermining of "Josefine the singer"

Concluding thoughts: the problem with (critical) progress.

Notes:

Based on the author's thesis--University of California-Irvine, 2010.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-218) and index.

ISBN:

9780810131460

0810131463

9780810131842

0810131846

9780810131507

0810131501

OCLC:

898158766