Why Study Literature?

This book presents new ways of thinking about the historical, epistemological and institutional role of literature, and aims at providing a theoretically well-founded basis for what might otherwise be considered a relatively unfounded historical fact, i.e. that both literature and the teaching of literature hold a privileged position in many educational institutions. The contributors take their point of departure in the title of the volume and use narratological, historical, cognitive, rhetorical, postcolonial and political frameworks to pursue two separate but not necessarily related questions: Why literature? and, Why study? This collection brings together theoretical studies and critical analyses on literature as a medium among, and compared to, other media and includes essays on the physical and mental geography of literature, focussing on the consequences and values of its reading and studying. Cover Title page Colophon Contents Introduction Why Study Literature? The editors Reframing Literature Why Literature? Some possible answers to the question “Why Study Literature?” Mediality Locality & Temporality Humanity References MEDIALITY Meaning as Spectacle: Verbal Art in the Digital Age Marie-Laure Ryan The spectacularization of language A technological typology of texts Category 1: Naturally generated linear texts for print Category 2: Naturally generated linear texts presented on the computer screen Category 3: Naturally generated database texts for print Category 4: Naturally generated database texts performed on the computer Category 5: Computer generated texts for print Category 6: Texts generated and presented by computer Dysfunctional language Return to functionality Bi-medial texts Networking Conclusion References A Defence of (the Study of) Literature or: Why (the Study of) Literature Cannot Be Replaced by Cultural Studies and Film (Studies) Werner Wolf Literature and the study of literature – increasingly outmoded activities? ‘Literature’ in today’s academic studies Major general functions of literature, and why literary studies cannot be replaced by Cultural Studies Qualities and functions specific to literature, or what might happen if Fahrenheit 451 became reality? Conclusion: Literature as an irreplaceable medium and literary studies as an equally irreplaceable research and educational institution? References Mediality and Literature Literature versus literature Morten Kyndrup The Centrifugality of Literary Studies What is Literature? Time Space Sign System Fictionality Enunciation Literature’s Mediality Why Study Intermediality? References LOCALITY AND TEMPORALITY Literature as Global Thinking Svend Erik Larsen Why (study) literature? Texts without borders Textual interaction Language in a media landscape Translation Global literature? Literature as aesthetic experience To see things for the first time The translocal perspective References Not Another Adult Movie: Some Platitudes on Genericity and the Use of Literary Studies Sune Auken References Models and Thought Experiments Brian McHale Models Modeling-For, or, Thought Experiments Don Quixote, or, Learning from Science Fiction References Literary Studies in Interaction Anne-Marie Mai Modern literary values and the literary opposition The highly diverse literary landscape Text Rain – an example Interdisciplinary collaboration Creative reading and writing References HUMANITY On the Differences between Reading and Studying Literature Magnus Persson Lay reading and professional reading Linguistic competence and literary competence Bridging the divide – towards a third way of reading References Aesthetics and the New Ethics: Theorizing the Novel in the Twenty-First Century Dorothy J. Hale References The Ethical Implications of Unnatural Scenarios Jan Alber The Impossible Temporality in Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium The Unnatural Narrators of the 18th Century The Transparent Minds in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway The Impossible Characters in Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine The Unnatural Space in Bret Easton Ellis’s Lunar Park Conclusion References The Force of Fictions Richard Walsh References Contributors The book presents new ways of thinking about the historical, epistemological and institutional role of literature. It aims at providing a theoretically well-founded basis for what might otherwise be considered a relatively unfounded historical fact, i.e. the fact that the teaching of literature holds a privileged position in many educational institutions. The collection brings together theoretical studies and critical analyses of literature as a medium among other media. The essays focus on the consequences and values of reading and studying literature. The contributors take their point of dep This collection brings together theoretical studies and critical analyses on literature as a medium among, and compared to, other media and includes essays on the physical and mental geography of literature, focussing on the consequences and values of its reading and studying. (Publishing)