Explore literary and critical theory in classic and contemporary literature and culture. These articles span 19th and 20th century philosophy, literary and critical theories.
Keywords Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man, Lewis Hyde, Seeing, Artistic Observation, Gift, William Blake “The past is preserved only in darkness, the future is not raised to the level of an image, as something which can be anticipated. It […]
Keywords Ludwig Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein’s Ladder, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus “Pay attention to the patter by means of which we convince someone of a truth of a mathematical proposition. It tells us something about the function of this conviction. I mean the
“The concept of aura which was proposed above with reference to historical objects may usefully be illustrated with reference to the aura of natural ones. We define aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close
How Time and Space Converge to Evoke Walter Benjamin’s Aura Read More »
Keywords Henri Bergson, Cinematic Mechanism of Thought, Intuition, Cognition, Creative Mind, Elan Vital “In its entirety, probably, it follows us at every instant; all that we have felt, thought and willed from our earliest infancy is there, leaning over the
Henri Bergson on the Cinematographic Mechanism of Thought Read More »
“The art of rhetoric underlines the ambiguity of language; to practice the art, one remains mindful that all conclusions are provisional, tentative. The art lies not in the completion of a text, but in the transfiguration of one text —
William Covino on the Art of Wonder in Philosophy Read More »
“Hail to Thee, Logos, Thou Vast Almighty Title, In Whose name we conjure— Our acts the partial representatives Of Thy whole act.” Kenneth Burke MISUNDERSTANDING TRUTH There is a huge misunderstanding in culture that the idea of relativism has wiped
Keywords David Foster Wallace, Solipsism, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Infinite Jest “One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible that solipsism.” David Foster Wallace The
David Foster Wallace and the Utter Hell of Solipsism Read More »
Keywords Hyperreality, Jean Baudrillard, Jorge Luis Borges, Lewis Carroll, Alfred Korzybski, The Matrix “Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being,
Hyperreality: Tracing the Evolution With Jean Baudrillard Read More »
“My interest is in how meaning is communicated via language, and I believe the shape, positioning, even the color of the language has an effect on meaning.” Mark Z. Danielewski In an interview with Google, Mark Z. Danielewski comments on
“Nothing is really work unless you’d rather be doing something else.” James Barrie When you think of Neverland, you probably think of adventure and fantasy and infinite play, but there is a dark, irredeemable side of Neverland that we rarely
Keywords Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, Punctum, Unconscious “What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida The French literary theorist, Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980), explores
Roland Barthes on Photographing the Unconscious in Camera Lucida Read More »
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” Carl Jung Using Greg Ulmer’s concept of electracy, Jan Holmevik explores
Free Play in the Age of Electracy With Jan Holmevik Read More »
Keywords The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus, Imagine Sisyphus Happy “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” Albert Camus The French philosopher, Simone Weil, had a profound influence on the existential thinker, Albert Camus. Both
The Myth of Sisyphus: Albert Camus on Rewriting Failure to Imagine Sisyphus Happy Read More »
“An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.” ~Albert Camus In a 2009 interview with Reuters Magazine, Kanye West says, “I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people
Make America Read Again: Take the Factory Model Out of Education 📚 Read More »
Greg Ulmer teachers readers to compose a MyStory through pattern recognition across family, career, school, and community.
