2015 Lahey Lecture by Eric Hayot, Penn State University

WHAT HAPPENS TO LITERATURE IF PEOPLE ARE ARTWORKS?

Friday, October 2, 2015

5:00 pm

EV 1.605
Amphitheatre

How do literary criticism's modes of reading define an implicit ontology of its object? And what happens if we compare the implicit ontology produced by practices of reading to that producedby theories of reading?

Arguing that a certain discrepancy between theories and practices of reading devolves from a Romantic prejudice derived from a version of Kant, and is exacerbated by a commonly held version of poststructuralism, this talk will try to move us beyond that prejudice and through that exacerbation in order to take stock of the consequences for literary ontology.