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    Pynchon and Wittgenstein: ethics, relativism and philosophical methodology

    Eve, Martin Paul (2014) Pynchon and Wittgenstein: ethics, relativism and philosophical methodology. In: Chamerois, G. and Chorier-Fryd, B. (eds.) Profils Américains: Thomas Pynchon. Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, pp. 81-104. ISBN 9782367810225.

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    Abstract

    This piece presents a tripartite analysis of the relationship between the philosophical works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the novels of Thomas Pynchon. This is broadly structured around three schools of Wittgenstein scholarship identified by Guy Kahane et al. as the Orthodox Tractatus, the New Wittgenstein, and several strands of the Orthodox Investigations (Kahane et al. 4-14). Moving from the earliest affiliation that Pynchon stages between Wittgenstein and Weissman, the underlying theme lies in Pynchon's relationship to ethical relativism as it pertains to Nazism. From this it will become clear that neither relativism of experience and representation, nor an unbounded relativism of non-committal ethics, are central to Pynchon's fiction.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Book Section
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Research Centres and Institutes: Contemporary Literature, Centre for
    Depositing User: Martin Eve
    Date Deposited: 08 Oct 2015 12:20
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:36
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/12197

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