Stanley Cavell: Skepticism, Subjectivity, and the OrdinaryISBN: 978-0-7456-2358-0
Paperback
216 pages
March 2002, Polity
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The book traces the many lines of skepticism occurring in
Cavell's work and shows how they amount to a rich and subtle
picture of human subjectivity. Hammer explores Cavell's passionate
engagement with Austin and Wittgenstein's visions of language, and
his uncovering of conceptions of the ordinary in Emerson and
Thoreau. Central sections of the book are devoted to the tragic and
the comic as these modes of existence come into play in Shakespeare
and Hollywood cinematic drama. In elaborating Cavell's responses to
thinkers such as Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida, the author
situates Cavell's writing within the wider context of contemporary
continental philosophy.
Hammer clearly reveals the existential dimensions of Cavell's
thought. He argues that his variant of ordinary language philosophy
is a vital stimulus to self-transformation in cognitive, aesthetic,
ethical, and political domains, contributing significantly to a
rethinking of issues such as responsibility and autonomy, and the
relationship between philosophy and literature.
A critical introduction to the thought of an inordinately complex writer, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, literary theory, cultural theory, comparative literature, and media and cultural studies.