Language pangs : on pain and the origin of language / Ilit Ferber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ferber, Ilit, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Senses and sensation.

Pain--Philosophy.

Pain.

Phenomenology.

Herder, Johann Gottfried, 1744-1803.

Herder, Johann Gottfried.

Herder, Johann Gottfried, 1744-1803. Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache.

Language and languages--Origin.

Language and languages.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache (Herder, Johann Gottfried).

Physical Description:

xii, 190 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2019]

Summary:

We usually think about language and pain as opposites, the one being about expression and connection, the other destructive, "beyond words" so to speak, and isolating. Language Pangs challenges these familiar conceptions and offers a radical reconsideration of the relationship between pain and language in terms of an essential interconnectedness. 0Ilit Ferber's premise is that we cannot probe the experience of pain without taking account its inherent relation to language; and vice versa, that our understanding of the nature of language essentially depends on how we take account of its correspondence with pain. Language Pangs brings together discussions of philosophical as well as literary texts, an intersection that is especially productive in considering the phenomenology of pain and its bearing on language. Ferber explores a 0phenomenology of pain and its relation to language, before providing a unique close reading of Johann Gottfried Herder's Treatise on the Origin of Language, the first modern philosophical text to consider language and pain, establishing the cry of pain as the origin of language. Herder also raises important claims regarding the relationship between human and animal, questions of sympathy and the role of hearing in the expression of pain. Beyond Herder, the book grapples with the work of other profound thinkers, including Martin Heidegger, Stanley Cavell, and Andre Gide, and finally, Sophocles, from them weaving new insights on the experience of pain, expression, sympathy, and hearing.

Contents:

1 On Pain and the Origin of Language p. 1

A Phenomenology of Pain p. 4

The Two Paradigms p. 8

Pain and Language p. 12

Herder p. 14

Philoctetes p. 17

Language Pangs p. 20

2 A Language of Pain: Herder and the Origin of Language p. 24

The Question of the Origin of Language p. 24

Herder's Two Figures of Philoctetes p. 27

The Crying Philoctetes: Herder's Theory of the Origin of Language p. 30

The Silent Philoctetes: Herder's Aesthetic Theory p. 37

Sympathy p. 41

The Principle of Expression p. 50

3 Language and Attention: Herder on Besonnenheit p. 54

Herder's Two Languages: Sensation and Reflection p. 54

Besonnenheit: Awareness and Reflection p. 56

Language and Attention p. 61

"You are the Bleating One": Language and Sound p. 64

An Ear for Language p. 73

Ah! and Aha! p. 76

Rousseau on Language and Pain p. 80

Language as Relation: Herder and Rousseau p. 87

4 Language and Hearing: Heidegger's Herder p. 94

Heidegger's Herder p. 94

The "Sound Character" of Language p. 101

Hearing and Hearkening p. 106

The Silence of Language p. 111

A Final Remark on Pain p. 116

5 Pain, Expression, and Sympathy: Philoctetes p. 120

The Figure of Philoctetes p. 120

The Pain-Attack Scene p. 122

Knowing and Acknowledging: Cavell p. 126

The Beauty of Language: Gide p. 134

"Language, Indeed Every Language, Is the Language of Pain" p. 139

6 Language Pangs p. 145

A Third Paradigm p. 145.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Ferber, Ilit, author. Language pangs.

ISBN:

9780190053864

0190053860

OCLC:

1088526667