This book discusses the power of ordinary language philosophy—a tradition inaugurated by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, and extended by Stanley Cavell—to transform literary studies. Toril Moi demonstrates this philosophy’s unique ability to lay bare the connections between words and the world, dispel the notion of literature as a monolithic concept, and teach readers how to learn from a literary text. By using Wittgenstein’s vision of language and theory, she considers theory’s desire for generality doomed to failure, and brings out the philosophical power of the particular case. Contrasting ordinary language philosophy with dominant strands of Saussurean and post-Saussurean thought, she highlights the former’s originality, critical power, and potential for creative use. Finally, she proposes an innovative view of texts as expression and action, and of reading as an act of acknowledgment. Revolution of the Ordinary goes beyond literary studies and appeals to anyone looking for a philosophically serious account of why words matter.

Toril Moi is the James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies, with additional appointments in theater studies, English, and philosophy, at Duke University.

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction 1

Part I Wittgenstein
1 “Five Red Apples”
Meaning and Use
2 Our Lives in Language
Language-Games,
Grammar, Forms of Life
3  Concepts
Wittgenstein and Deconstruction
4 Thinking through Examples
The Case of Intersectionality

Part II Differences
5  Saussure
Language, Sign, World
6 Signs, Marks, and Archie Bunker
Post-Saussurean
Visions of Language
7 Critique, Clarity, and Common Sense
Ordinary Language Philosophy and Politics

Part III Reading
8  “Nothing Is Hidden”
Beyond the Hermeneutics of Suspicion
9  Reading as a Practice of Acknowledgment
The Text as Action and Expression
10  Language, Judgment, and Attention
Writing in the World
Notes
Works Cited
Index