Philosophy and Literature

Pre-requisites: None

Course objectives: Students should become familiar with the distinctive features of literary and, especially, poetic language, which motivate the idea of a special cognitive status of poetry (as well as literature in general) and its links with philosophy.

Course description: Issues to be considered include: the nature of the verse as a rythmicl unit with a distinctive semantic potential that is actualized in poetry; the other distinctive features of poetic language that are illuminated by theories of Jakobson, Tynyanov, Mukarovsky which explain the specific semantic possibilities of that language and claims about special cognitive status of poetry; idea that the poetic text by its "semantic richness" resist thorough literal paraphrase; the nature of metaphor and, generally, figurative language in in poetry and beyond; analogy between the cognitive status of poetry and philosophy, based on the juxtaposition of both to science and the scientific use of language.

Learning Outcomes: Student should be able to recognize and analyze distinctive features of literary and poetic language as well as critical consider of literary-theoretical and philosophical ideas in this field.

Literature/Reading:

• Roman Jakobson, Ogledi iz poetike, 1978
• Leon Kojen, Jakobson: poetika i metrika, 1998
• Jurij Tinjanov, Problemi stihovnog jezika; Arhaisti i novatori, Sarajevo, 1990
• Metafora, figure i značenje: zbornik teorijskih radova, priredio Leon Kojen, 1986
• Stein Haugom Olsen, The Structure of Literary Understanding, 1978
• Jan Mukaržovski, Struktura pesničkog jezika, 1986, str. 48-102, 155-182
• Donald Davidson, „What Metaphors Mean“, Critical Inquiry, 1978
• Cleanth Brooks, The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry, 1947, str. 3-20 i 176-196
• William Empson, The Structure of Complex Words, 1951, str. 1-83
• Eva Feder Kittay, Metaphor: Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure, 1987
• Leon Kojen, Studije o srpskom stihu, 1996, str. 3-24
• Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen, Truth, Fiction, and Literature, 1994, str. 255-456