Twenty-first International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

My paper investigates the ways in which narratives are a medium for contending with philosophical questions that re-emerge across time and space, particularly those relating to human nature and the conditions of human connection. Proceeding from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept of “language games,” I argue that the act of reading narratives is one language game in which we learn and develop our understanding of who we are and have been as humans, how we relate to others, the capacities of human beings (individually and communally), and the nature of meaning for ourselves and our society. I examine the ways in which narratives and their varied forms operate to test, confirm, challenge, negate, etc. our understanding or recognition of meaning and use as well as the implications. Succeeding Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, Toril Moi, and Sarah Beckwith contend for a critical practice of “acknowledgement” in literary criticism. This mode compels the reader to see the text, the author, and herself in relation to it in an intellectually honest way that renders a richer, more fruitful dialogic with oneself and others. Coupling the theoretical with the practical, I take for my sample Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave. Provoked by Northup’s philosophical contemplations on moral formation, the scope of my inquiry addresses the nuances of moral identity and the complexity of difference that Northup illuminates while maintaining his moral convictions.