Transformation Of Experience, And Language - Pragmatism Literary Theory

Pragmatism is one of the most important philosophical schools in American. After the late 20th century, it has significantly changed and formed a new theory school called "neo-pragmatism". The process of the transformation is influenced by "Linguistic Turn" and the "Postmodern Theory" at the same time. This study focuses on the two key words "experience" and "language", with considering those two key words we could describe the main history clue of Pragmatism and find out the influence and elicitation on the research of literary theory. The study on the two concept of "experience" and "language" could embody the important philosophy divergence of classical pragmatism and neo-pragmatism. Also it can display the theoretical basis which classical pragmatism made for the neo-pragmatism so as to show the process of theory development from modern to "post-modern"The two figures of the dissertation are John Dewey and Richard Rorty, who respectively represent the classical pragmatism and neo-pragmatism. Both of them have developed the distinctive theory of pragmatism in the different history period. Both of them have leaded the main stream of the pragmatism at the time which influenced the theoretical circles greatly. The dissertation will explore the main idea of the two figures of basic questions of philosophy and art, considering both "experience" and "language". And it will extend to the theory of Emerson, Peirce and James, so that to put pragmatism into a wider view of history background, and grasp its own spirit. In spite of the complicated theoretical framework of pragmatism, those two key words "experience" and "language" will outline the cause and impact of the transformation from the old to the new.In the process of illustrating the concept of "experience", Dewey emphasized the continuity and organic of the experience. The theory of Dewey inclined to have the factors of Darwin Naturalism and Hegel Idealism. Dewey rebuilt the position for experience in epistemology and laid theory foundations for Rorty through discussing the contingency and contemporariness of "experience". The idea of language for Dewey could be the contrast of Rorty's Neo-pragmatism view of Language, for Dewey, both "experience" and "language" is in the service of practical purpose of Dewey's practice theory.Rorty emphasized the significance of language in his theory research. His main purpose is to establish a new relationship between language and reality, to put an end to the endless disputes about binary opposition of subjectivity and objectivity, representation and reality. The "linguistic turn" caused philosophy to turn from the questions about accordance between language and reality to the structure of language, furthermore Rorty made the concept of language more pragmatical. He thought even the analysis and structure observe of language could not provide the inevitable and certain truth, and we should turn to the theoretical research through the pragmatical combinations of anti-foundationalism and holism.This dissertation first concludes the main feature of pragmatism and the main process of the rise of neo-pragmatism and the declining of classical pragmatism. The first chapter analyzes the reason of this change and the history influence, and gives a brief description of the situation of acceptation and development of pragmatism in and abroad China. Then the next two chapters start separately from the two concept of "experience" and "language", narrate the process of pragmatism focal point transformation from "experience" to "language" in a retrospection way in the history situation. And compare the different perspective the transformation brings. The last chapter summarizes the impact on research of literary critics and theory, such as the redefinition of the concept of literary, the extending of the value and function of literary and the application of the new forms of literary critics.