Postmodern Liberal Literature

Richard Rorty's “Liberal Ironists”

Bibliographic Data

ID20156337
AuthorsAndrew Foley (corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume24
Issue4
Pages19-43
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387
PublisherUnisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.1080/02564710802220879
OpenAlexW2088315111
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited20

This article explores the notion of postmodern liberal literature through the filter of the political theory of Richard Rorty. It is generally assumed that the rival claims to validity of liberalism and postmodernism are mutually contradictory and therefore irreconcilable. Rorty's work, however, is characterised by the attempt to accommodate the most valuable insights of postmodern theory within the political ideals of liberalism. For Rorty, it is perfectly possible to be both a political liberal and a postmodern sceptic, or “ironist”, at the same time: hence his coinage of the term “liberal ironist”. Rorty argues further that the figure of the liberal ironist is best represented by writers of literature, in the narrow sense of poets, dramatists, and especially novelists. Ironist writers are, in Rorty's view, primarily interested in the private goals of self-creation and redescription within the context of an acute awareness of the contingency of their belief system. Nevertheless, in so far as their work also concerns itself imaginatively with issues of human pain and suffering, it will have utility within the public sphere of political action, and so influence moral progress. Even if Rorty's ambitious project is ultimately unsuccessful as a political theory per se, many of the insights which he provides may nonetheless be shown to have great value and significance for contemporary cultural and literary studies. To demonstrate this, the article will consider a number of writers, from a variety of backgrounds, whose work displays the characteristics, on Rorty's terms, of liberal ironism

Aesthetics · Classical liberalism · Contingency · Epistemology · Liberalism · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Postmodernism · Public sphere · Skepticism · Sociology · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · History · Law · Philosophy · Postmodernism in Literature and Education · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access