Richard Rorty and the Cultural Politics of Literary Criticism

Simon Stow warns that the influence of political readings of literary texts could be harmful to political discourse. In particular, he cautions against the growing popularity of political “readings” over political “arguments.” Compared with traditional arguments, readings are, Stow argues, poorly suited for liberal political discourse. To demonstrate this point, Stow challenges the political character of Richard Rorty’s reading of Pale Fire. In this essay, I dispute Stow's criticism of Rorty. My basic argument is that literary criticism (or "readings") can be politically significant and that Rorty's acknowledgement of this fact ties him to rather than separates him from, both the political and literary arenas. To make my point, I reconsider the reading of Pale Fire Rorty offers relative to the kind of reading of Don Quixote offered by Nabokov. By arguing that even the most "literary" of writers reads for political purposes, I hope to situate Rorty within a cultural space where the literary and political converge.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Montana

Year

2008

Author dc:creator

• Copeland, John

• literary studies
• Nabokov
• political studies
• reading
• Rorty
• Stow

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/840

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1859