Journal of Literary Theory Vol. 14, No. 1 (2020)
Special Issue »Interpretation and/as/or Aesthetic Experience«
Submission Deadline: 1 September 2019
Call for Articles
A large part of literary studies is concerned with interpreting literary works. Controversial issues in literary theory include the very goals of literary interpretation, its methods, and standards of correctness. Moreover, in recent times there has been some interest in potential discrepancies between theoretical assumptions on interpretation and interpretive practice. Most literary scholars as well as theorists will probably agree that the basic aim of interpretation is to facilitate our understanding of a work by uncovering its meaning. However, this ›semantic‹ approach to interpretation could be biased. In particular, it does not sit well with a picture of the literary work as an object of the reader’s aesthetic pleasure, aesthetic experience, literary appreciation, or ›immersion‹. Call this the ›aesthetic‹ approach to interpretation. Against this backdrop, interpretation could be said to have the basic aim to facilitate, or probably even maximize, the reader’s aesthetic pleasure, aesthetic experience, etc. Now, while some theorists (including Susan Sontag in her much celebrated »Against Interpretation«) think that the ›semantic‹ and the ›aesthetic‹ approaches to interpretation are irreconcilable, others have argued that they may be complementary, or that they belong to different realms, such as scholarly work vs. personal life.
JLT invites papers on topics that include, but are not limited to:
- Enquiries into the history of literary studies: which conceptions of interpretation belong to the ›semantic‹ approach, or to the ›aesthetic‹ approach, respectively?
- What are the theoretical background assumptions of either approach (from e.g., semiotics, aesthetics, the theory of art or language)?
- Conceptions of ›meaning‹, ›understanding‹, ›aesthetic experience‹, ›aesthetic pleasure‹, etc.
- Conceptions of the experiential side of reading, such as ›experientiality‹, ›immersion‹, ›transportation‹, and their relation to conceptions of ›meaning‹ or ›work meaning‹
- What place does aesthetic experience have in literary interpretation (e.g., goal, criterion, precondition)?
- Can interpretations according to either the ›semantic‹ or the ›aesthetic‹ approach be scholarly (or even scientifically) rigorous?
- What is the relation between aesthetic experience and aesthetic appreciation?
- Can there be a study of interpretive practice according to either the ›semantic‹ or the ›aesthetic‹ approach?
- Enquiries into the psychology of (aspects of) reading according to the ›semantic‹ or ›aesthetic‹ approaches to interpretation
- Are there ways to reconcile the ›semantic‹ and the ›aesthetic‹ approaches to interpretation?
We encourage submissions from all language and literature departments as well as neighboring disciplines, e.g. the philosophy of art, media studies, art history, and musicology. Articles in which individual literary texts or a corpus of literary texts are interpreted can only be considered if they feature a strong focus on systematic and theoretical questions.
Contributions should not exceed 50,000 characters in length and have to be submitted by 1 September 2019. Please submit your contribution electronically via our website www.jltonline.de under »Articles«.
Articles are chosen for publication by an international advisory board in a double-blind review process.
For further information about JLT and to view the submission guidelines, please visit www.jltonline.de/index.php/articles (»About JLT« and »For Authors«) or contact the editorial office at jlt@phil.uni-goettingen.de.
SUBMISSIONS THAT DO NOT FOCUS ON ONE OF OUR SPECIAL TOPICS CAN BE SUBMITTED CONTINUOUSLY VIA OUR WEBSITE.
JLT aims to publish work on fundamental issues in methodology and the construction of theories and concepts, as well as articles on particular literary theories. Case studies, i.e. studies on specific authors, works, or problems of literary history, are accepted only if they adopt a predominantly systematic perspective, contribute to the reconstruction of the history of literary theory, or pursue innovative methods. Moreover, the Journal of Literary Theory contains work reviewing and outlining trends of theoretical debates in literary theory and related disciplines.
Please contact the editorial office if you have further questions.
Jan Borkowski
JLT - Journal of Literary Theory
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Seminar für Deutsche Philologie
Käte-Hamburger-Weg 3
37073 Göttingen
0049 - (0)551 - 39 – 7516
JLT@phil.uni-goettingen.de
www.JLTonline.de
http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jlt