Anthropology and literature Cover Image

Antropologia i literatura
Anthropology and literature

Author(s): Michał Paweł Markowski
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Literary anthropology; Literary theory; Wolfgang Iser; Literature

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts at replying to the question of how anthropology relates to literature. Elaborating on Wolfgang Iser’s suggestions, the author states that literature has a single basic function to perform, and that is, to interpret the outside world by creating structures weakening its strangeness. What anthropology strives for, in turn, is to grasp the essence of human being through analysing its products or creatures. The shared area for both types of discourse is their being submerged in existence – understood as a linguistic element of self-understanding, an intermediate sphere between the naked life and conceptual knowledge.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 24-34
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish