scholarly journals Metaphysics, Universal Irony, and Richard Rorty’s “We Ironists”

Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Timo Airaksinen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Richard Rorty ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Work And Life

Richard Rorty speaks of “we ironists” who use irony as the primary tool in their scholarly work and life. We cannot approach irony in terms of truth, simply because, due to its ironies, the context no longer is metaphysical. This is Rorty’s challenge. Rorty’s promise focuses on top English Departments: they are hegemonic, they rule over the humanities, philosophy, and some social sciences using their superior method of ironizing dialectic. I refer to Hegel, Gerald Doherty’s “pornographic” writings, and Gore Vidal’s non-academic critique of academic literary criticism. My conclusion is that extensive use of irony is costly; an ironist must regulate her relevant ideas and speech acts—Hegel makes this clear. Irony is essentially confusing and contestable. Why would we want to use irony in a way that trumps metaphysics? Metaphysics, as defined by Rorty, is a problematic field, but irony can hardly replace it. At the same time, I admit that universal irony is possible, that is, everything can be seen in ironic light, or ironized. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and criticize Rorty’s idea of irony by using his own methodology, that is, ironic redescription. We can see the shallowness of his approach to irony by contextualizing it. This also dictates the style of the essay.

Outlaws and Misfits: The Identities of Modernist Criticism

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-356
Author(s):  
Ben Knights
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
Emotional Maturity ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Emotional Autonomy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Implicit Identity ◽  
The University ◽  
Cultural Positioning

The images of the writer as exile and outlaw were central to modernism's cultural positioning. As the Scrutiny circle's ‘literary criticism’ became the dominant way of reading in the University English departments and then in the grammar-schools, it took over these outsider images as models for the apprentice-critic. English pedagogy offered students not only an approach to texts, but an implicit identity and affective stance, which combined alert resistance to the pervasive effects of mechanised society with a rhetoric of emotional ‘maturity’, belied by a chilly judgementalism and gender anxiety. In exchanges over the close reading of intransigent, difficult texts, criticism's seminars sought a stimulus to develop the emotional autonomy of its participants against the ‘stock response’ promulgated by industrial capitalism. But refusal to reflect on its own method meant such pedagogy remained unconscious of the imitative pressures that its own reading was placing on its participants.

Filosofia Literária: Uma Encruzilhada Entre os Caminhos de Harold Bloom e Richard Rorty

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (51) ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Heraldo Aparecido Silva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Richard Rorty ◽  
Harold Bloom ◽  
Primary Means

The aim of this article is to analyze the philosophy of Richard Rorty through the poetic theories of Harold Bloom. It is shown that redescription, the primary means by which Rorty addresses philosophy, pragmatism and culture, can be interpreted as misreading, a revisionist literary tool that implicates appropriation (revision), distortion (deviation), and correction (redirection). Finally, I propose a crossroad between the paths of Bloom and Rorty, a conversation between the Bloomian literary criticism and the Rortyan philosophy: the philosophy as a literary conversation.

scholarly journals Teaching English in Non-English Departments: Empowering Teacher Towards Improvement

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Ninuk Sholikhah Akhiroh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
English Departments ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Relevant Field

ABSTRACT English Language Teaching (ELT) in non-English majors already has its “home” but not its “host”. It means that the parties involved in the teaching have not been able to manage an effective ELT yet. There could be many aspects related to this, yet this paper prefers to propose a solution to improve the effectiveness of English teaching in non-English majors by empowering the English language lecturer. This paper refers to the results of research conducted on the teaching of English in the Faculty of Social Sciences that use lecturers and students as the main informant, as well as interviews, observation and document analysis as data collection techniques. The results showed that some important improvement in ELT for non-English majors can be initiated by the lecturers. There are some necessary steps to do to reinforce the role of lecturers in ELT implementation. They are involving the lecturer in designing or revising the curriculum, building connection with fellow ESP lecturers and lecturers of relevant field of study, and activating Focus Group Discussion among teaching team. These steps hopefully will be complemented by the improvement of other aspects in ELT for non-English departments to build an effective teaching.   ABSTRAK Pengajaran bahasa Inggris di jurusan non-bahasa Inggris baru memiliki “rumah” saja, belum “tuan rumah”nya. Ini berarti bahwa pihak-pihak yang terlibat dalam pembelajaran belum dapat menata sebuah pengajaran bahasa Inggris yang efektif. Ada banyak hal yang dapat dilakukan, namun tulisan ini memilih untuk mengajukan sebuah solusi perbaikan pengajaran bahasa Inggris di jurusan non-bahasa Inggris dengan cara memberdayakan dosen pengampu matakuliah. Tulisan ini  merujuk pada hasil penelitian yang dilakukan terhadap pengajaran bahasa Inggris di Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dengan menggunakan dosen dan mahasiswa sebagai informan utama, serta wawancara, observasi dan analisis dokumen sebagai teknik pengumpulan data. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa beberapa perbaikan penting dalam penegajaran bahasa Inggris dapat difasilitasi oleh dosen pengampu matakuliah. Langkah-langkah yang dapat dilakukan adalah: melibatkan dosen dalam menyusun kurikulum pengajaran bahasa Inggris; membangun hubungan dengan sesama dosen pengajar ESP dan dosen ahli bidang ilmu tertentu; mengaktifkan forum diskusi antar anggota tim pengajar. Langkah-langkah ini diharapkan dapat dilengkapi dengan perbaikan dari aspek-aspek lain guna mewujudkan pembelajaran yang efektif. How to Cite: Akhiroh, N. S. . (2017). Teaching English in Non-English Departments: Empowering Teacher Towards Improvement. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 4(1), 49-62. doi:10.15408/ijee.v4i1.5341  

scholarly journals A Review of Agency and Structure: Where does Rorty’s Ironist Stand?

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Reza Arab
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Richard Rorty ◽  
Main Question ◽  
The Public ◽  
Agency And Structure

This paper intends to reread what Richard Rorty introduced as ironist in the context of one of the most contested topics in the realm of social sciences; i.e. agency and structure. Rorty maintains that ironist is the potential citizen of utopian liberal democracy. An ironist, in his words, is a person who a) has radical and continuing doubts about the final vocabulary she currently uses, b) realizes that argument phrased in her present vocabulary can neither underwrite nor dissolve possible doubts, and c) she does not think that her vocabulary is closer to reality than others. The main question of this study is where this conscious subject stands within the context of agency-structure dispute. First, relevant literature on the dichotomy is going to be examined, and then, while discussing other relevant terms in his philosophy, this paper will show how Rorty solves the agentic problem of his ironist with his introducing of the public-private distinction.

The Formation of a Field: Ecocriticism in America—An Interview with Cheryll Glotfelty

PMLA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-616
Author(s):  
Cheryll Glotfelty ◽  
Michelle Balaev
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Literary Ecology ◽  
Environmental Imagination

The classic anthology the ecocriticism reader: landmarks in literary ecology (1996), edited by cheryll glotfelty and Harold Fromm, was the first of its kind to bring together an array of scholarship that focused on a relatively unrecognized field of study: ecocriticism. This singular publication was the brainchild of Glotfelty, who worked with Fromm to produce a collection that stands at the gates of our contemporary era as a harbinger of the significant criticism and curricula that would shape literary studies in English departments across the country. The Ecocriticism Reader accompanied a new wave of interest in the field as seen in contemporaneous publications such as Karl Kroeber's Ecological Literary Criticism (1994) and Lawrence Buell's The Environmental Imagination (1995).

scholarly journals Ideologie, ‘egte’ norme en literêre taalhandelinge

Literator ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
M. Rossouw
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
South African ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
African Community ◽  
Ethical Norms ◽  
Different Levels

For many years text-immanent approaches to literature have dominated the scene of Afrikaans literary criticism. This article adds a voice to the ‘spontaneous' discourse in which ethical norms (especially socio-political guidelines), too, come into play when a literary text is studied. Since the context in which a text is written and read is of great importance in such an approach, speech act theory is used in order to determine the intentions (illocutions) of the writer in the texts, as well as the reactions (perlocutions) of readers to the text. The purpose of this is mainly to establish whether critique of ideology manifests itself in speech acts directed towards freedom and dignity for all people. On the other hand there may also be signs of unconscious ideological illocutions in the contradictions which occur within or between the different levels of communication (macro, meso and micro). These contradictions are related to socio-political contradictions which are repressed within the South African community. In order to illustrate this kind of approach, three novels of Etienne van Heerden are discussed, viz. Om te awol (1984), Toorberg (1986) and Casspirs en Campari's (1991).

scholarly journals On literary narratives, fictionality, and the rules of conversation

Linguistica ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-250
Author(s):  
Anna Buckett
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Laurence Sterne ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
Recent Developments

"Writing, when properly managed (as you may be sure I thirik mine is) is but a different name for conversation" - "thus Laurence Sterne in Trist Shandy ( 1767). Such statements provoke an examination of possible links between literary narratives and iinguistic models of oral communication. Recent developments in the field of pragmatics, in particular Speech Acts, Deixis and H. P.Grice's Logic and Conversation, provide concepts and structurai principles which could prove useful to literary criticism. This comment, for instance, by Roland Barthes might suggest the need to resort to the theory of deixis: Il ne peut y avoir de recit sans narratetir et sans auditeur.

scholarly journals Reconsidering the rigour-relevance gap: the need for contextualised research in risk societies

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Galavan ◽  
Denis Harrington ◽  
Felicity Kelliher
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper addresses the debate on rigour and relevance in management research to identify barriers to progress and identify the challenges and opportunities in moving forward. We identify strong calls from both North American and European literatures for a move to close this gap. It has, however, been 20 years since Hambrick asked scholars ‘What if the academy actually mattered?’ during his Presidential address to the Academy of Management. Despite both the time and the consistency of calls, there has been only modest progress in closing this rigour-relevance gap. We argue that this is not because of any lack of willingness or capacity but is shaped by systemic issues. We find the narrative of the business school framed as either professional or social sciences a core issue. Each brings with them a tradition of different ontological perspectives and epistemological processes, protected by gatekeepers, which supports, even if unintentionally, the maintenance of the gap. We go on to discuss the challenge of management education and research in a postmodern context, the need to examine our conception of rigour, and to challenge the definition of management as a profession given its strategic win-lose orientation. We conclude with a discussion on the relationship between society and business and lay out the challenges ahead for richly contextualised scholarly work that may be defined as both rigorous and relevant.

A Classification of the Literature on Computers and the Social Sciences

1983 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Computer Research

Common categories of scholarly work are needed to facilitate communication among di verse researchers. Although a theoretically derived taxonomy is generally important, nevertheless, for constructing a bibliography, reviewing new books, and refereeing article submissions, a classification that reflects the terminology of the entire literature is more practical. A classification scheme is out lined and within this context, the growing body of literature on computer research in the social scien ces is highlighted. Readers are invited to propose alternatives, revisions, or extensions to this class ification.

Literary Criticism, English Departments, Con-III Students

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
George C. Herndl
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
English Departments
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