Ordinary Language Criticism: Literary Thinking after Cavell after Wittgenstein

A major intervention into the question of the uses of literature, Ordinary Language Criticism proposes a radical paradigm shift away from the kinds of literary criticism that have dominated the academy for the last two decades and more. In a series of essays on texts and figures ranging from Genesis to Don Quixote to Proust, Henry James, Heidegger, and Frost, an eminent group of literary critics and philosophers sets out to recover "ordinariness" as the overlooked point of departure in literary studies and to point up the aesthetic, ethical, and metaphysical consequences that follow from that recovery.

"This is a major collection, one of the most exciting works in literary criticism I have read in a great while. The editors have drawn together a wide-ranging, stellar group of essays that elaborate and complicate their Introduction in fascinating ways. I would go out and buy a copy immediately, if only to refer to it more conveniently in future work." --Clare Cavanagh, Associate Professor, Slavic Literatures, Northwestern University