Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / E.F. Kaelin -- Editorial Foreword / Richard T. Hull -- Editor’s Introduction / Ellen J. Burns -- Author’s Preface / E.F. Kaelin -- Acknowledgments / E.F. Kaelin -- Part I Phenomenological Critical Theory / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- One Living with Metaphor / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Two Of Time in Literary Texts / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Three Language as a Medium for Art / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Four The Debate over Stratification within Aesthetic Objects / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Five Contextual Significance and the Truth of Literature / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Part II Phenomenological Metacriticism and Critical Practice / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Six The Role of Philosophy in the Development of Tragic Drama / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Seven Toward a Theory of Contemporary Tragedy / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Eight What Makes Philosophical Literature Philosophical? / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Nine Nature and Human Nature in Literary Contexts / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Ten The Fourteenth way of Looking at a Blackbird / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- Afterword The Uses and Abuses of Theory / E.F. Kaelin and Ellen J. Burns -- References / E.F. Kaelin -- Glossary of Technical and Unusual Terms / E.F. Kaelin -- About the Author / E.F. Kaelin -- About the Editor / E.F. Kaelin -- Index of Proper Names / E.F. Kaelin -- Subject Index / E.F. Kaelin -- Value Inquiry Book Series / E.F. Kaelin -- Titles Published / E.F. Kaelin.

Texts on Texts and Textuality argues the case for an American phenomenology as applied to works of literary artworks. The argument is made by a surrounding frame (the Preface and the Afterword) that encloses ten chapters. The chapters are divided into two parts: the phenomenological theory and practical criticism. In making his case, Kaelin traces the development in the American academic tradition from the American New Criticism through structuralism to the French nouvelle critique . He calls his theory phenomenological structuralism, and shows its derivation from American pragmatism (contextualism) to an unabashed phenomenology through the criticisms of Roman Ingarden, Martin Heidegger, and Paul Ricoeur. The structuralism derives from the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, as incorporated into the philosophical linguistics of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Part II contains five chapters, each concerned with either direct application of the theory in acts of criticism, or in the metacriticism of accepted critical theories, such as the Aristotelians of early dramatic critics (Chapter 6), or of applied procedures in recent academic critical circles (Chapter 10). The argument is concluded in the author's Afterword, where pedagogical issues are introduced to suggest the future applicability of the theory. A glossary of technical and new terms is added, and a double index - of names and a subject matter - is included to map out the author's own interpretation of his bibliographic references.

English

Description based on print version record.