Narrativity in variation
Merleau-Ponty and Murdoch on literary and philosophical narratives
pp. 81-98
in: Barry Stocker, Michael Mack (eds), The Palgrave handbook of philosophy and literature, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
It may seem natural to assume that philosophical and literary narratives are two distinct forms of discourse. Many philosophers therefore take on the task of theorizing about how literature may have philosophical (cognitive) value with bearing on our real world despite the fact that it is made up. Both Merleau-Ponty and Murdoch give us reasons to think that the whole idea of a gap between fictional and dramatic narratives, on the one hand, and factual and argumentative ones, on the other, is spurious. Building on their thoughts, it is here argued that attention to narrative literature can bring into view a form of conceptual elasticity that is part of all language—even if much of philosophy quite often has strived hard to eradicate it.
