New Philosophy of Discourse

What would happen if structures forms and other stand-alone entities thought to comprise our intellectual toolkit-words meanings signs-were jettisoned? How would a work written in a purportedly dead language like <i>The Iliad</i> or penned in a foreign tongue be approached if deemed legible without structures such as meaning-bearing signs or grammatical rules?<br/><br/><i>A New Philosophy of Discourse</i> charts a novel course in response to these questions coining an original concept of discourse or talk! that Joshua Kates presents as more fundamental than language. In Kates' conception of discourse writing and speech take shape entirely as events situated within histories contexts and traditions themselves always in the making. Combining literary theory literary criticism and philosophy to reveal a new perspective on discourse Kates focuses on literary criticism literary texts by Charles Bernstein and Stanley Elkin and the philosophical writings of Stanley Cavell Hans-Georg Gadamer Donald Davidson and Martin Heidegger.<br/><br/>This ground-breaking study bridges the analytical/continental divide by working through concrete problems using novel and extended interpretations with wide-ranging implications for the humanities.