“The Figure in the Carpet” as Theoretical Tool

• Authors: Kaplický Martin
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study is based on the assumption that literary interpretations are explicitly or implicitly influenced by some philosophical system as a general system of thought. In this way, different literary interpretations often hide more general philosophical ideas. Nevertheless, this study tries to show that the interpretation of the given work of art need not be conceived only as application of the general philosophical approach; interpretation of the work of art, as argued in this essay, can in significant ways also show the philosophical approach itself. The subject of this study is the case of Henry James’s short story “The Figure in the Carpet.” This essay includes an analysis of how Tzvetan Todorov, Joseph Hillis Miller, Wolfgang Iser and of Pascale Casanova interpret the story and how they use its dominant image of a “figure in the carpet” for illustration of their own theoretical and philosophical approach.

Keywords

EN

Henry James; structuralism; deconstruction; reader-response theory; Pascale Casanova

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 4(10)
• Pages: 21-31

Dates

published

2019-12-31

Contributors

author

Kaplický Martin

• Department of Aesthetics, Charles University in Prague

References

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• Intonti, Vittoria. “‘The Figure in the Carpet’ as an Allegory of Reading.” RSA Journal 7 (1996): 27–36.
• Iser, Wolfgang. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.
• James, Henry. Art of the Novel: Critical Prefaces. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934.
• James, Henry. “The Figure in the Carpet.” In Complete Stories 1892–1898, 572-608. New York: Literary Classics of United States, 1996.
• Miller, Joseph Hillis. “The Figure in the Carpet.” Poetics Today 1, no. 3 (1980): 107–118. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772414.
• Miller, Joseph Hillis. Reading Narrative. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
• Pepper, Stephen Coburn. The Basis of criticism in the Arts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
• Rorty, Richard. “The pragmatist’s progress.” In Interpretation and Overinterpretation, edited by Stefan Collini, 89-108. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
• Todorov, Tzvetan. “The Structural Analysis of Literature: the Tales of Henry James.” In Structuralism: an introduction, edited by David Robey. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14394/eidos.jpc.2019.0039