What kind of object is literature? Or, towards a practical ontology of the literary artifact

• Grant number: 24/18031-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Akcelrud Durão
• Grantee: Fabio Akcelrud Durão
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project proposes an original position in the current debate on literary theory in Brazil. Underpinning this position is a characterization of the specificity of the literary object, whose main trait lies in its irreducibility to predicative logic: the literary artifact's being cannot be approached through an accumulation or listing of its attributes, for, on the contrary, it can only emerge from interpretation, which is here conceived as an act. The project is divided into two main parts; the first one offers some guidelines for the unfolding of the definition of literature according to this practical ontology, while the second lays the basis for the mapping out of several trends in contemporary literary theory, which, we claim, carry out premature semantization, preconceived concepts or ideas that limit the interpretative practice's potential. At the end, the project discusses possibilities of national and international exchange with scholars sharing the same concerns. (AU)