Research
Novels in the Everyday: An Aesthetic Investigation
Author:
Kalle Puolakka
Department of Philosophy, History, and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, P. O. Box 024, 00014 University of Helsinki, FI
Abstract
Everyday aestheticians have had relatively little to say about literature. Inspired by Peter Kivy’s philosophy of literature as laid out in his books The Performance of Reading and Once-Told Tales, I examine reading literature as a part of everyday life. I argue that not only do Kivy’s views help explain the value that avid readers place on their daily silent engagement with a book, but that his philosophy of literature also shows how literary works can have an aesthetic presence in our everyday lives even during periods in-between reading a book. In light of the paper, literary reading turns out to be an artistic routine that fills avid readers’ everyday lives in a very literal sense.
How to Cite:
Puolakka, Kalle. “Novels in the Everyday: An Aesthetic Investigation”. Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 56, no. 2 (2019): 206–22. DOI: http://doi.org/10.33134/eeja.189
Published on
01 Sep 2019.
Peer Reviewed
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