Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/SIC/1.6.LC.2
World Literature and the Figurative Push to Sublimate Space
Christian Giguere
; Université du Québec a Trois-Rivieres, Canada
Abstract
This paper examines the influence of Aristotle’s theory of place (topos) on the conceptualization of cultural universality. Its main focus is in reinvesting the thought of Baruch Spinoza and Henri Bergson surrounding the fossilized spatial boundaries that limit understanding in order to scrutinize both the virtual and figurative processes inherent to the sketching of a universal human plane outside of local custom in certain literary works. This investigation yields a concept of “figurative agency” that is then delineated in the Tao Te Ching and Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in order to demonstrate how the concept might serve as a bridge between the extended space of a national culture and the virtual plane invested by world literature.
Keywords
world literature; Henri Bergson; Spinoza; figurative agency; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Tao Te-Ching; literary epistemology
Hrčak ID:
150728
URI
Publication date:
10.12.2015.
Visits: 916 *