Literature And Rationality: Ideas Of Agency In Theory And Fiction

Although rationality is a central topic in contemporary analytic philosophy and in the social sciences, literary scholars generally assume that the notion has little or no relevance to literature. In this interdisciplinary study, Paisley Livingston promotes a dialogue between these different fields, arguing that recent theories of rationality can contribute directly to literary enquiry and that literary analysis can in turn enhance our understanding of human agency. The result is a work that helps bring literary studies into a more productive relationship to the human sciences. Livingston provides a broad survey of the basic assumptions and questions associated with concepts of rationality in philosophical accounts of action, in decision theory, and in the theory of rational choice. He challenges prevalent irrationalist and mechanistic conceptions of human motivation and gives examples of the ways in which rationality is involved in the writing and reading of literary works, ranging from Icelandic sagas to Beckett, Dreiser, Kafka, Lem, Poe, and Zola.Livingston's critical analyses show how theoretically oriented readings of literature can contribute to the formation of hypotheses about the dynamics of human action and interaction. LITERATURE AND RATIONALITY LITERATURE AND RATIONALITY Ideas of agency in theory and fiction PAISLEY LIVINGSTON Professor, Department of English, McGill University The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in /534. The University has printed and published continuously since /584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge New York Port Chester Victoria Sydney CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521405409 © Cambridge University Press 1991 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1991 This digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Livingston, Paisley, 1951Literature and rationality / Paisley Livingston. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 40540 8 1. Literature - Philosophy. 2. Knowledge, theory of. 3. Literature and science. 4. Science - Philosophy. 5. Reason. I. Title. PN49.L545 1991 809' .93384-dc20 90-22179 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-40540-9 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-06480-4 paperback to my parents Contents page x Acknowledgements Introduction: literature and rationality I I 2 II 3 4 5 6 THEORIES AND QUESTIONS Rationality: some basic issues Agency, rationality, and literary knowledge TEXTUAL MODELS