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Ordinary Language Philosophy & Literary Studies Online

Bibliography of Recent Work on Wittgenstein and Literary Theory

Recent scholarship on Wittgenstein and literary theory sits between philosophy, criticism, aesthetics, and the study of ordinary language. It asks how meaning is made in use, how literary forms guide attention, and how interpretation depends on shared practices rather than private mental images.

For literary scholars, Wittgenstein’s importance extends beyond direct discussion of metaphor, fiction, or poetry. His remarks on aspect-seeing, rule-following, expression, criteria, and the limits of explanation offer methods for describing what texts do without reducing them to hidden structures or authorial intentions.

A useful bibliography therefore needs to bring together primary texts, work on ordinary language philosophy, studies of Stanley Cavell, and research in ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophy of literature. It should also distinguish historical influence from current applications of Wittgensteinian ideas in literary criticism.

This guide is designed as a starting point for students and researchers in Australia and elsewhere. It gives particular attention to recent and continuing debates, while retaining the earlier publications needed to understand the field’s vocabulary and intellectual history.

Defining The Field

The most productive research often begins with the later Wittgenstein rather than with a general account of his philosophy. Philosophical Investigations, On Certainty, Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, Culture and Value, and Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief all contain material relevant to literary interpretation.

These texts should be read alongside the distinction between Wittgenstein’s philosophical method and the uses made of it by literary critics. Wittgenstein does not provide a theory of literature in the conventional sense. Instead, he supplies descriptions of language, judgement, understanding, and human practices that can alter how criticism approaches a poem, novel, play, or memoir.

Recent bibliographic work should also include the influence of ordinary language philosophy on literary studies more broadly. J. L. Austin’s account of performative language, Gilbert Ryle’s analysis of mental concepts, and Rush Rhees’s reflections on language and literature help establish the intellectual setting in which Wittgensteinian criticism developed.

Primary Texts And Reliable Editions

The fourth edition of Philosophical Investigations, translated by G. E. M. Anscombe, P. M. S. Hacker, and Joachim Schulte, remains essential for research. Researchers should record the numbered remarks used in quotations, since paragraph references are more stable than page numbers across different printings and digital platforms.

Culture and Value, edited by Georg Henrik von Wright and translated by Peter Winch, is especially useful for research on art, style, literary judgement, and the relationship between philosophical writing and personal expression. The text is fragmentary, so it should be treated as a carefully edited collection rather than as a systematic treatise.

For historical and textual work, The Big Typescript: TS 213 and Wittgenstein: Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology offer valuable evidence of Wittgenstein’s evolving methods. Digital library catalogues in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and Brisbane can help identify which editions are available through institutional subscriptions or interlibrary loan.

Ordinary Language And Literary Interpretation

Toril Moi’s Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies After Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell is a central recent contribution. It argues for a form of criticism grounded in the ordinary, in responsiveness to language, and in the possibility that interpretation can clarify rather than replace literary experience. The book is particularly important for scholars assessing the relation between close reading and philosophical description.

Sandra Laugier’s work on ordinary language, scepticism, and moral perception offers another significant route into this literature. Her essays and books connect Wittgensteinian thought with questions of voice, vulnerability, recognition, and the ethical force of everyday speech. These concerns intersect with contemporary debates in feminist criticism, affect theory, and the study of testimony.

A useful bibliography should place this scholarship beside earlier work by Stanley Cavell, Charles Altieri, and Stephen Mulhall. Their approaches differ, yet each demonstrates how Wittgenstein can support a criticism attentive to criteria, responsiveness, and the ways readers learn to see literary particulars.

Cavell, Aesthetics, And Moral Perception

Cavell’s Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare remains indispensable for literary scholars interested in scepticism, tragedy, acknowledgement, and the limits of interpretation. His readings of Shakespeare show how Wittgensteinian concerns can become methods of literary argument without turning plays into illustrations of philosophical doctrines.

Cavell’s The Claim of Reason and Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome extend this inquiry into moral philosophy, romanticism, film, and political thought. His work is especially relevant to studies of Shakespeare, American literature, film criticism, and the relationship between aesthetic judgement and ethical responsiveness.

Recent research often revisits Cavell through questions of gender, race, disability, and the politics of recognition. Such work should be read critically: Cavell’s emphasis on acknowledgement can illuminate exclusion and responsibility, while also requiring careful attention to the historical conditions that shape whose voice is heard.

Language Games, Form, And Voice

Wittgenstein’s concept of language-games can be used carefully in the study of genre. It helps critics describe how a sonnet, courtroom transcript, lyric monologue, novelistic dialogue, or autobiographical fragment establishes expectations for speaking and understanding. The concept is less useful when treated as a loose synonym for “context”.

Research on rule-following and aspect-seeing is especially relevant to narrative form. A change in perspective may be comparable to the shift involved in seeing a literary figure, scene, or phrase under a new aspect. This does not make reading arbitrary; it draws attention to the practices and examples through which a new interpretation becomes intelligible.

For postgraduate work, bibliographies should include scholarship on metaphor, voice, translation, and literary world-making. Wittgenstein’s remarks on expression and family resemblance can support studies of recurring forms without assuming that every text belongs to a fixed category. They also invite comparison with reader-response theory, pragmatics, and philosophical hermeneutics.

Building A Research File

A reliable working bibliography can be divided into primary texts, historical scholarship, recent literary criticism, and materials on Cavell and ordinary language philosophy. Library discovery should combine author searches with terms such as “Wittgenstein and aesthetics”, “ordinary language literary criticism”, “language games and genre”, and “Cavell Shakespeare”.

For researchers working in Australia, Trove can locate older books, theses, and periodical holdings, while university databases provide access to journals and ebook platforms. Australian Copyright Act 1968 restrictions should be considered when scanning chapters or circulating PDFs in a reading group. During semester, a shared bibliography in a university learning system can help students distinguish legally accessible material from licensed library content.

Useful search categories include:

A focused reading sequence can then move from primary texts to recent interpretive studies. Libraries in Melbourne and Sydney often support philosophy and literary theory through separate subject databases, while ANU and other Canberra institutions provide strong resources for interdisciplinary humanities research.

A practical sequence might include:

Add verified records to the OLP & Literary Studies Online archive, noting edition, translator, publication year, DOI, and stable library link wherever available. Sharing carefully checked bibliographic entries helps students and scholars across Australia build a stronger, more accessible record of Wittgenstein’s continuing presence in literary theory.