Finding Philosophers in Global Fiction

 

 

Includes my chapter in Part II. 9. Border Crossings: Foucault, Philosophy and Fiction (Ian McCormick)

Description

A cross-cultural study that explores and redefines what philosophy, philosophizing, and philosophers are through the lens of literature. The academic discipline of philosophy may tell us, too rigidly, what a philosopher is or should be; but fictional narration often upholds the core conundrums of humankind in which philosophy germinates. This collection of essays explores whether a study of 'philosophers' at a planetary scale, or at least on a broad cross-cultural spectrum, can decouple philosophy from its academic aspect and lend it a more inclusive domain. Contributors to this volume play with three conceptual poles, making them interact with each other and get modified through this interaction: 'fiction', 'narrative' and 'philosopher'. How do these three terms get semantically modified and broadened in scope when we speak of the figures of philosophers in imaginative writing? How do these terms assume different connotations in different cultural contexts, interacting with the multiplicity of not just 'thought', but also the media and tools of 'thought'? Do we always think only rationally? Or do we also think with and through emotively powerful images, symbols and tropes? In the end, Finding Philosophers in Global Fiction insists on the need to 'de-elitize' and democratize the concept of a 'philosopher' by reflecting on the possibility of seeing a philosopher as one who sees things clearly, from any vantage point.

Table of Contents

 Introduction: “Who” Is a Philosopher? Philosophers in Fiction Anway Mukhopadhyay (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India), Saptarshi Mallick (Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, University of North Bengal, India) and Debashree Dattaray (Jadavpur University, India)

Part I. The Figure of the Philosopher: Theorization, Tropologization, Interrogation

1. Philosophy from the Feet Up Andy Mousley (De Montfort University, UK) 2. Tasos Leivaditis' Blind Man with the Lamp as Anti-Philosopher N. N. Trakakis (Australian Catholic University, Australia) 3. Beyond Mind and Matter: Robert Pirsig's Quest for Quality Gabriel Ricci (Elizabethtown College, USA) 4. Philosophers for Themselves or for the Society?: Václav Havel's Plays and Essays between a Solitary Philosopher and a Philosopher-Statesman Tomáš Halamka (Charles University, Czech Republic) and Jana Tokarská (Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic) 5. Search for an Alternative Onto-topology: A Reading of J. M. Coetzee's Life and Times of
Michael K Ashok K Mohapatra (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, India) 6. Navigating Marlow's Enigmatic Philosophy of Nature in Heart of Darkness Michael T. Heneise (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway) 7. Ghost in the Shell: Relational Actorness in Moments of Crisis Aleš Karmazin (Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic)

Part II. Devoured by Fiction: Philosopher Figures' Journey from History to Fiction

8. Love, Death, and Philosophy: The Representation of Albert Camus in Salim Bachi's Le Dernier été d'un jeune homme Lynda Chouiten (University of Boumerdes, Algeria) 9. Border Crossings: Foucault, Philosophy and Fiction Ian McCormick (Independent Scholar, UK) 10. The Axial Age through a Novelist's Eyes: The Philosopher Characters in Gore Vidal's Creation Jeffery D. Long (Elizabethtown College, USA) 11. Reading the Trope of Yatra/Journey in Sanmatrananda's Nastik Panditer Bhita and Chhayacharachar: The Possibilities of 'Being' and 'Knowing' Arpita Chattaraj Mukhopadhyay (University of Burdwan, India)

Part III. 'Philosopher', Defined Anew: Gender, Indigeneity, 'Ordinariness' and Non-anthropocentrism

12. The Snail and Its House: Anneliese as a Home Thinker in Lou Andreas-Salomé's Das Haus Shruti Jain (O.P. Jindal Global University, India) 13. Widows, Prostitutes, and Freedom: Philosophy in Unusual Places Lakshmi Arya Thathachar (RV University, India) 14. “Stories are meant to heal”: Indigenous Epistemology and the Elders in Richard Wagamese's Works Debashree Dattaray (Jadavpur University, India) 15. Characters as Philosophers: Understanding Igbo Proverbs and Characterizations in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Bartholomew Chizoba Akpah (William V.S Tubman University, Liberia) 16. The Ordinary “Seers”: Emotions, Detachment and Darshana in Dharamvir Bharati's Stories Vanashree (Banaras Hindu University, India) 17. Performing Philosophy: Rajesh Khanna's Philosopher Heroes from Early 1970s Hindi Cinema Piyush Roy (RV University, India) 18. "The White Fox" as a Vision of Altruistic Self-sacrificial Love: Okakura Tenshin's Opera Manuscript Eiko Ohira (Otsuma Women's University, Japan) 19. The Fellowship of Tranquillity: The Poet and His Child Philosopher Saptarshi Mallick (Sukanta Mahavidyalaya/University of North Bengal, India) Index