Is there Anything like a Literary Categorisation of the World? Cover Image

Czy istnieje jakaś literacka kategoryzacja świata?
Is there Anything like a Literary Categorisation of the World?

Author(s): Jarosław Płuciennik
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Mark Turner; Literary mind; Categorisation; Mind; Pragmatism

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the peculiarity of a literary categorisation of the world. In order to answer the title question, the author starts off with Mark Turner’s thesis that there exists a literary mind which manifests itself in daily uses of language. While the author agrees with this statement, he makes a literary-historical adjustment to it. The reply is positive: a modern literary categorisation is a soliloquial, processual oscillation between uncertainty and an emotional exultation of certainty. This thesis is preceded by an analysis of literary examples of obsessive (certainty-based) categorisations as well as categorisations with various degrees of uncertainty. The article draws on cognitive sources and traditions of pragmatism.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 62-72
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish