The Emergence of Literature: An Archaeology of Modern Literary Theory

(Paperback)

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The Emergence of Literature is an extension and reworking of a series of significant propositions in philosophy and literary theory: Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthes examination of the concept of the literary absolute; Martin Heideggers destruction and Giorgio Agambens archaeology of the metaphysics of will; Maurice Blanchots delimitation of the space of literature; and Michel Foucaults archaeology of literature. Its core contribution to the history of theory is to understand the literary absolute not simply as philosophical concept, but as a paradigm that delimits the horizon for currents of literary theory through the course of the 20th century where the literary criteria change from the theme of sincerity to the theme of the death of the author. Stretching from Kant to Hegel, from Hlderlin to the Early German Romantics, from John Stuart Mill to New Criticism, from Benjamin to Barthes, The Emergence of Literature examines the relation between continental philosophy and literature in the post-Kantian era.

Reviews

[It] provides a meticulous resource and sets an ambitious standard for all those who question how to think about literature. * French Studies *
Jacob Bittners The Emergence of Literature provides a welcome and rigorous reassessment of modern literature and theorys lost or 'unthought' unifying paradigm. ... In a field that has tended in recent years toward fragmentation and an increasing lack of communication between new schools, this is invigorating reassertion of a unifying paradigm that will serve as the basis for future dialogue on literary studies most significant questions. * Style *
At a time when literary writings are studied primarily as manifestations of a given reality (moral needs, ecological dangers, racial problems, mental issues), Jacob Bittner's The Emergence of Literature offers a timely return to a critical tradition - running from the Schlegel brothers, Kant and Hlderlin over Heidegger and Blanchot to Barthes and Agamben - that chooses to define literature in its own terms. Taking his central cue from Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy's Labsolu littraire, Bittner aims for what he terms an archeology of literary theory, an understanding of the conceptual framework that made possible the idea that the true poet cannot but write poetry and that to write means to write 'intransitively', without reference to an external object. Bittner's book is by no means an easy read, but given the complex philosophical and aesthetic issues that he deals with, that in itself can only be taken as a compliment. A proper historiography of literary theory is one of the larger projects that the field of literary studies is in need of: I take this book to become a central contribution to that collective endeavor. * Jrgen Pieters, Professor of Literary Theory, Ghent University, Belgium *
Bittner's work represents a genuinely original and interesting contribution both to contemporary literary-philosophical and literary-theoretical debate and to intellectual-historical accounts of the development of literary thought and practice since the Romantic era. * Ian James, Head of Department of French and Reader in Modern French Literature and Thought, University of Cambridge, UK, and author of The New French Philosophy (2012) *
This book is the most thorough exploration of the 'Literary Absolute' I know and a condensed intellectual history of continental thought in modernity. * Christian Benne, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and editor of Nietzsche und die Lyrik : Ein Kompendium (2017), Athenum and Orbis Litterarum *
A remarkable intellectual feat, based on an in- depth knowledge of continental philosophy and modern literary theory. * Recherche littraire/Literary Research *

Author Bio

Jacob Bittner is an independent scholar who earned his PhD in critical theory at Kings College London, UK.