Three things I really like: literature, philosophy, and Coetzee. I’m less crazy about reality, but it has it’s moments, and let’s face it, we’re sort of stuck with it. In any case, Stephen Mulhall has a new book coming out soon, The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy :
In The Wounded Animal, Stephen Mulhall closely examines Coetzee’s writings about Costello, and the ways in which philosophers have responded to them, focusing in particular on their powerful presentation of both literature and philosophy as seeking, and failing, to represent reality–in part because of reality’s resistance to such projects of understanding, but also because of philosophy’s unwillingness to learn from literature how best to acknowledge that resistance. In so doing, Mulhall is led to consider the relations among reason, language, and the imagination, as well as more specific ethical issues concerning the moral status of animals, the meaning of mortality, the nature of evil, and the demands of religion. The ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature here displays undiminished vigor and renewed significance. [more...]
[merci à Mark Thwaite]
